A New Era
by JimberlyShipper
Summary: This takes place before the start of the eleventh season, and Elliot and Liv's daughter Elizabeth is at the head of a drug ring, in which the Jump Street team is trying to take down. Fourth in the series. Still have no name. Taking suggestions. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: OK. This is the fourth story in my series that still does not have a name. Nothing that is known to be someone else's is mine, and this takes place six months after **__The Return of the Bitch From Bitchville. __**It should put us right at the beginning of season eleven time frame wise. **__**Merritt Rook is still around, and so is Dani Beck. Just take a read. Reviews are appreciated. A name for the series is still up for grabs, suggestions are welcomed. The characters of **__21 Jump Street __**do not belong to me. This is a crossover with **__21 Jump Street__**. I've never written a fanfic with **__21 Jump Street __**before. So bear with me. Just read and review! It's set in the third season of **__21 Jump Street__**, and they are the same ages they were on the show. It's just set in the 2000s. If you want to check out the show, it's on Hulu. It's a great show. Really. Johnny Depp was hot, Peter DeLuise was funny, and it had great writing. Really!**_

A New Era

By Julia

It was a calm and quiet evening at the Stabler house. Olivia really wanted to have her baby. She was due any day now. Eli was two, he was crawling around everywhere. Nicky and Alex were one and a half, and had started crawling around everywhere, too. Eli walked some, but he liked to trip over his own shoelaces a lot. And he liked to pretend he was a dog for most of the day, so that required a lot of crawling around. Olivia had still not gone back to work, but that's because she and Elliot had decided the best thing to do would be to wait until after she had what they had since found out was another girl, and she took some time. Then, after about six weeks or so, she'd go back. It was just easier that way. She had been spending a lot of time with her father, and they had re-bonded. Elliot was very proud of her. He was able to be home a lot more now that he was in charge of the Unit. He didn't have to work as hard chasing down perps. He was doing a good job from what Casey was telling her.

Right now, she was reading in the living room, waiting for him to get home. Casey still hadn't found a place she liked, and so she was still living there with them. Olivia was alright with that. They still hadn't heard much from Kathleen. It was starting to bug them. She only called once a week. Olivia was starting to worry about her. She hoped she was doing alright.

Thinking of Casey, she came into the room, freshly showered and in her pajamas. ''So, are we going to watch a movie, or are you really in the reading mood?'' She asked, as she sat down in the armchair next to the couch. The boys' playpen sat on the rug inbetween the coffee table and the television.

Olivia, who was catching up on as many Stephen King novels as she could, set _Needful Things_ down on the coffee table after marking her place. ''Sure, we can watch a movie. We can watch anything you want. I know Elliot just got_ Forgetting Sarah Marshall_ for the kids. It's supposed to be really funny.''

Casey said, ''Sure, I guess we could watch that. I really want to watch _Forrest Gump_ though. I'm just in that mood. Is that OK with you?'' She asked, giving her best friend a look that said, "You better be."

Olivia smiled at her. ''OK. Sure, that's fine.'' She very slowly got up off the couch. ''I want to pop some popcorn, and I'm going to call El, make sure that he's coming home. You go ahead and put it in, I'll be in in a minute, I swear.'' She padded into the kitchen, and put the popcorn in the microwave before calling Elliot.

He answered on the first ring. ''Captain Stabler's office.'' He said, and she could tell that his focus was on whatever it was that was in front of him, and not who was on the other end of the phone. That was not good.

Olivia said, ''Baby, when are you coming home? I thought we were going to hang out together tonight? I wanted to see you. You've worked so hard the past couple of months we've barely seen each other.''

Her husband stopped looking at the files he had been pouring over and said, ''I'm sorry, Livvy. I miss you, too. I never knew that this was goinhg to be so hard.'' He rubbed his eyes. ''I was planning on being home soon. I was just finishing up on some paperwork. I know that I was supposed to be able to be home more. This case has just been a little crazy.''

Olivia tried not to get angry. She didn't want to sound like Kathy used to, and she knew that her husband loved doing her father's old job. ''Baby, I'm trying really hard to be understanding. You just have to meet me half-way.'' She really wanted to see him, and now she was worried that she was going to go into labor without him being home. That would be horrible.

Elliot said, ''I know, baby, I'm sorry. Look, I'll leave right now, I swear.'' He closed the file he had been pouring over, and put it in his desk drawer. He was getting ready to say something else when he looked up and saw a couple of young men standing in his office doorway. ''Look, baby, I gotta go. There's some guys here to see me. I'll try to make it home as soon as I can.'' He told her he loved her and hung up the phone. ''I'm Captain Stabler. How can I help you?'' He asked, gesturing for them to come in and sit down.

The younger one had Johnny Depp locks hanging over his eyes, a large pair of jeans hanging off his slim hips, a blue tee shirt hanging down nearly to his knees, and a black zip up hoodie. His brown eyes were expressive, and he was using them to examine Elliot the same way he was examing him. He said, ''I'm Dectective Tom Hanson, and this is my partner, Doug Penhall. We have to talk to you. We're out of Queens. We work at a division called Jump Street. We go undercover at high schools, to catch drug dealers, that sort of thing. Well, now we think we may have found one of the biggest drug rings we've ever seen.''

Doug spoke next. He was dressed similarly to Hanson. He had on the large jeans, a white tank top, a paid shirt, and a grey hoodie. It was like ninety degrees out, Elliot didn't know how he wasn't burning up. Hanson, either. ''We have reason to believe that your daughter, Elizabeth, is behind it. We're undercover at her school.''

Elliot's mouth dropped open. ''You've got to be kidding me! My kids have never even looked at drugs. My wife and I make sure of that. Why do you think she's behind this?'' He asked, still not daring to believe them.

Hanson and Penhall shared a Look, and then Hanson turned to Elliot. ''We have been investigating for about a month now. We've talked to about twenty or thirty kids she's sold to. She and her girlfriend have a network that covers three high schools in Queens alone. They have maybe about ten kids working for them in each school. We're talking a major operation here. And they don't just sell weed. They also sell pharms.''

Elliot could hardly tell what was wrong with that sentence first. The fact that Hanson had said "girlfriend" or the fact that his daughter was selling drugs in three schools. ''So what are you planning to do? It sounds like you've got all the evidence you need. I can't stop you.''

Penhall and Hanson shared a look again, and then Doug said, ''We wanted to talk to you first. We had heard from more than one of the kids that Liz's father was a captain with the SVU in Manhattan, and that her mother was a dectective with the Unit, too. We wanted to tell you about it. We wanted to let you know what was going on. We can try to keep it as low profile as we can, but she has to go down, she's got too big of an operation for us to just drop it.''

Elliot could understand that. ''I get that. Should I be getting ready to line up a lawyer? How close are you to nailing her?'' He had never expected something like this to happen during the course of his day.

Tom replied, ''Oh, we're nowhere near to actually nailing her. We just found out about a week ago that she's the one behind this. She's got her boys at the school too scared of her. It was the kids buying from them that let us in on her being the one behind it. We haven't decided how to proceed. We're thinking of adding two of our other dectectives to the case, help us out. Our cover is one we've used before, the McQuaid brothers. We approached her handlers about joining the ring, helping them sell. We haven't gotten them to accept us yet. We're still trying to get close enough to her.''

Elliot said, ''Do you actually have anything tying her to this than some kids' words? You're going to have to if you're going to nail her for this.'' He paused, and then said, ''And she's dating a girl?'' He didn't care, he wanted his kids to be happy, but he wanted to make sure that he had heard them right. He didn't want Lizzie's life to be any harder because of her sexual orientation.

Penhall and Hanson both looked at each other again, smiling. ''No, man, I meant, one of her girlfriends. Like, a friend. She's not dating anyone steadily. She just broke up with this guy, Jason Fitzwater. He actually has an older brother that works here at your squad. Dalton? That his name?'' Doug asked.

Elliot took a deep breath. ''Thank God. OK, so. Do you need my help with anything? And she was dating Fitz's brother? I'm going to _kill _her. Fitz is a nice guy, but I definitely don't want him in the family.'' He smiled at the looks the young men were giving him. ''Sorry. I didn't mean to focus on the trivial stuff.''

Hanson shook his head. ''No problem, man. But uh, no, we don't need your help as of now. We just wanted you to be aware of what's going on. Don't let her know that you know any of this, we don't want our cover blown. Not after all of this work. And you might be seeing us hanging with her at the house. We're almost in.''

Elliot narrowed his eyes at them. ''Should I be worried about either one of you? How old are you guys, anyway?'' He thought his daughter would totally dismiss Penhall, but Hanson, she'd definitely have a crush on him. She loved Johnny Depp, and this guy could be JD's cute younger look alike brother.

Hanson and Penhall tried to keep the grins off their faces. They knew the guy was being a concerned father, plus, he was in charge of the sex police. ''I'm twenty-four, and Penhall's twenty-six. Don't worry, we know what the age of consent is. And plus, Penhall's involved with one of our other dectectives, Judy Hoffs.''

Elliot let out the breath he'd been holding. ''Good. So, what's the plan? How are you going to proceed?'' He wouldn't not be able to worry about this. He could hardly believe that his daughter was a drug kingpin. This was insane!

Penhall replied, ''We're actually hanging out with her tonight at a party. We'll know better how to proceed after what happens at the party. Our captain would kill us if he knew we were here, but we'll keep you posted.''

With that, they said goodbye and left the precinct. Hanson led the way to their car. ''So, I can't believe that Lizzie came from that guy! Maybe she's adopted.''

Penhall laughed. ''I could see that, but she has his eyes. So, what's the plan for the party? Are we going to bring Booker and Ioki in? Or Hoffs?'' He was just looking for an excuse to bring Judy to the party. He hadn't seen much of her since they'd been working this case. It meant a lot of parties with the high school set.

Tom shrugged. ''We could, but we haven't run it past Fuller yet, and I think that could get us in some big trouble. Remember, we only talked about the possibility with him. And they're undercover at another school, on a completely different case. We could bring in Hoffs, though. I know you want to see her.''

Doug slipped in the car as Tom started it up. ''I just haven't seen much of her this week. We've been together for nearly a year, but it still feels like we just started, you know? I love her so much. We're thinking about moving in together, you know.'' He gathered his long hair into a tiny ponytail.

Hanson said, ''Well, why don't you call her? You can introduce her as Judy, your girlfriend. We'll just use her cover from her case, and we can say that you met her through friends. And hurry, we've got to know if she's coming with us so we can pick her up.''

About forty-five minutes later, Hanson was pulling up in front of Fitzwater's house. He and Liz were still friends. They hadn't dated that seriously. He still worked for her in the drug ring. They had heard that she might actually be here that night. She wasn't usually at the parties; she had to maintain her good girl image to keep suspicion off her. Doug got out and held the door open for Judy. She got out, and he closed the door behind her. They walked up to the door and rang the bell.

Jason met them at the door. He lived with his older brother. Their parents had passed away, and Fitz had become his guardian. He grinned at them. ''McQuaids, awesome. And who's this you've got with you, Doug?'' He asked.

Doug shared a smile with Judy, and replied, ''This is my girl, Judy. She goes to school in Brooklyn. She's cool.'' He said, and Jason stepped back to let them in. ''So, did Lizzie come tonight? We were really hoping that we could get to talk to her. We really think that we could move some product for her.'' Doug chattered.

Jason shrugged. ''I think she's here somewhere, with Amanda, that bitch best friend of hers. She was in the living room, last I saw. So, you guys want a beer? Or we have vodka, gin, rum, all kinds of stuff in the kitchen. The pharms are in the living room if you want to partake, and the makeout rooms are upstairs. If you want to take Judy up.'' He said, winking at Penhall.

Doug smiled at the look Judy gave Jason's retreating back. He turned to Hanson. ''What's the plan, Tommy? Are we going to try and hunt Liz down? See if we can get into the operation?''

Tom tried not to roll his eyes at Doug calling him "Tommy". He hated that. ''Of course. Off to the living room.'' He led the way, Judy and Doug following.

There were lots of kids in the living room, sitting around tables with bowls full of pills. Liz and Amanda were sitting on the couch, _awfully _close together. Tom thought he might have been wrong in telling Elliot that she and Amanda were just friends. He stopped for a minute, before they got to the girls. ''What's the game plan, Doug? We've only talked to her a couple of times. It's not like we're best friends or anything.''

Doug was momentarily stuck. ''I don't know. We could just sit down with her and wing it. That's all I got.'' He added, at the look of reproach he earned from his best friend..

Tom led them to the couch. He smiled at Liz. ''Can we join you?'' He flashed his best smile at Liz. He hoped that she would let them based on his good looks. He usually didn't bank on them that way, but Liz was a girl. He figured it was a safe bet.

Liz looked Tom up and down, and smiled. ''Sure, sit on down. Amanda and I were taking speed. You want any? It's there in that bowl on the table.'' She gestured to the full bowl.

Doug sat on the armchair, pulling Judy onto his lap. He ignored the look of fake reproach she gave him and he said, ''We're pacing ourselves. We already had some vodka before we got here. This is pretty slow. I thought this party was supposed to be ragin'.'' He ignored the look Tom was giving him.

Liz shrugged. ''Whatev. So, I hear from some of my guys that you want to join the network. What about you? Do I know you?'' She asked Judy as she took a sip of whatever was in her plastic cup. Tom hoped she was being smart and it was just soda.

Judy said, ''No, I go to a different school in Brooklyn. I'm Doug's girl.'' She spit the word out, but squeezed his leg to let him know she wasn't mad.

Liz said, ''I got guys in Brooklyn. I'm getting ready to start up a ring in a fourth school. Business is that good. Which one you go to? We could totally talk about getting you in.''

Judy thought it was an awfully small world if it was indeed the same school. ''PS 178.'' She settled back in Doug's arms, glad that they had asked her to come. She'd missed him lately.

Liz looked disappointed. ''Aw well. Maybe I'll have that one wrapped up in a few months. I plan to have a network of schools. I'm trying to make money for college. At this rate, it'll be paid for in a year or so and I can shut down the business. So, McQuaids, you in or what?''

Tom and Doug looked at each other. They hadn't expected it to be this easy. ''Um, yeah. We think we can move some real product for you. When do you want us to start?'' Tom asked, hardly believing their luck.

Liz said, ''I'm not getting a shipment in until next month. So we'll talk then. OK. Amanda and I are going upstairs. We'll talk at school, OK? Enjoy the party.'' She stood up, grabbing Amanda's hand, and headed upstairs.

Tom took their vacated seat and turned to Doug. ''What do you think about that? We finally broke through the wall.'' He asked, ''So how long do you think we're expected to stay?''

Doug shrugged. ''I think we can get away with a half an hour. We can use the excuse that Judy's got tough parents, and we have to get her home so she doesn't get in trouble.''

Meanwhile, at the Stablers', Elliot was sitting cuddled with Olivia on the couch. He hadn't thought of how to tell her about Lizzie. He'd asked her where she was when he'd returned home, and Olivia had told him that she was sleeping over at her best friend Amanda's. He had wondered ifthat's where she really was. He figured that he'd tell Olivia in the morning, when Liv's water broke, and they had to go to the hospital. He hoped Liz would answer her phone when he called her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Elliot stood in the waiting room of the hospital. Olivia hadn't gone in yet, she was still not dialated enough to go back. He was trying to get ahold of Lizzie. She hadn't answered her phone. All the other kids were there, except for Eli, Nicky, and Alex. Munch had volunteered to watch them. Elliot thought they were too little to be at the hospital all night long. Kathleen had even shown up. They hadn't spoken to her for a month. She had missed her last four weekly calls.

On the fourth try, Lizzie finally answered her phone. ''Hi, Daddy. What's going on? Do you know it's like, one in the morning? Amanda and I had finally fallen asleep.'' This was not true. They were getting dressed after having had sex at the party. Liz had never had a girlfriend before Amanda, but she liked it. Jason hadn't been man enough for her. He _had_ taken her virginity, though. She and Amanda had been friends for four years, since eighth grade. They were juniors now. She was glad that she and Mandie had been upstairs when her father had called. The others were being kind of loud down there. She had heard shouting just a few minutes for the McQuaid brothers to drink more.

Elliot wondered if that's really what she had been doing, because based on his conversation with Penhall and Hanson earlier that evening, he doubted that that was true. It was the summer break, though, and he wanted her to have fun as long as Penhall and Hanson were wrong about her being behind the drug peddling. ''Liz, your mother is having the baby. I need you to come to the hospital.''

Liz brightened. She was glad that her baby sibling was finally coming into the world. ''OK, cool, I'll be there. Don't worry.'' She hung up and finished pulling on her jeans. She slipped them over her thong covered ass and buttoned them up. She straightened her bed mussed hair, so her family wouldn't know she'd been carnal, and kissed Mandie on the lips. ''I've got to go. Mom's having the baby. I don't smell like cigs or anything, right?'' She asked, hoping the answer was no.

Mandie took a sniff, and then smiled, giving her another kiss. ''Nope, you're clean. So, you need a ride? I can take you.'' She said, but then added, ''But the McQuaid brothers are so crazy to get in your favor I bet they'll take you.'' She laughed. ''I can't believe that you're giving them a chance. What's the deal with that? They're so totally without.''

Liz shrugged. ''I like Tom. He's nice. Doug's a bit of a Neanderthal, but he's nice too. I think they can move a lot of drugs, like they say. I bet they've got a lot of contacts. And with Doug bringing Judy, we may be able to open up sales in her school, too. He can use her contacts. I'm just using them to expand the empire. You know I'm doing this for us. We can't run away together if we have no money.''

Amanda nodded, pulling her closer. ''I know you are. Just be careful. I don't trust them. I don't know why, I just don't.'' She gave her one last kiss and let her go. She watched her go downstairs, licking her lips.

When Lizzie finished descending the staircase, she saw Judy sitting bored at the kitchen counter, while the Doug McQuaid was guzzling what looked to be tequila, and Tom was rooting him on. Jason was at the head of the shouting crowd, and Liz rolled her eyes. ''Shut up!'' She yelled. They all stopped, turning to look at her. The McQuaids shared a look that only Liz caught before they looked at her. She said, ''Do you want the cops to show up? Now, who wants to take me to the hospital? My mother is having her baby. I need to be there.''

She wasn't surprised when the McQuaids volunteered to do it. ''Alright, you may take me. Which one of you has drank the most?'' She asked, as Judy slipped off the kitchen stool.

Doug stuck up his hand. ''Me. Tom didn't have any at all.'' He ignored the look Tom gave him for pandering to Liz's attitude. She wasn't a queen. Doug knew that. He didn't need Tom to confirm that for him.

Liz smiled. ''OK, Tom, you'll have to drive. If you are planning on staying at the party, you can leave Judy and Doug here. If not, then let's get going.'' She picked up her jacket from the kitchen table. She wore her house key on her belt, and she had money in her back jeans pocket. She hadn't needed to bring her purse. She also had her ID, just in case.

About forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the hospital. Liz slipped out of the car, thanked her escorts, and headed into the building. She found her eldest sister Maureen waiting for her as soon as she walked in. She grinned. ''Hello, Mo. How's Mom?'' She asked.

Maureen's long blonde hair was swept up in a long ponytail. ''Liz, I went through a lot of the same things you're going through right now, so I can understand. But Dad called you an hour ago. Where the hell were you coming from that it took that long? I _know_ you weren't at Amanda's, she only lives a half an hour from here.''

Liz ignored her sister's question. ''What's the damage, Heather? Did Mom have the baby already or something? Why isn't Daddy down here to yell at me? I know he probably wanted to. Does he know you're down here?'' She tossed long brown hair behind her shoulder. She had golden highlights. They were natural, though. The brown was from her father, and the blonde was from Kathy.

Maureen shook her head. ''Mom didn't have the baby yet. She's still not dialated enough. She's only at five. Dad's upstairs with Grandpa Don, Uncle Fin, Kathleen, Dick, Callie, Ace, Casey, Alex, and Fitz. Uncle Munch agreed to sit for the kids.'' She set her sister with a glare. ''If you were at some party, you'd better hope it was a good one, because I'll aim to make sure that it was your last one for a long time.''

Liz folded her arms, forgetting that she wore a tube top with her jeans, and her father was going to kill her when he discovered what she was wearing. Her jeans were also low you could also almost see her thong. She was dressed for a party, and she knew that her sister knew that. However, she could argue that she was also dressed for a date. Which she planned to do. ''Excuse me, but I was on a date. Amanda and I are dating. I didn't want Daddy to find out. Please don't tell him. I don't want to give him a heart attack. He just turned forty-eight. He's not even fifty yet.''

Maureen was not surprised to hear this. She had been talking to Dick about their sister, and he told her that she was acting out a lot. He also knew that she was causing some kind of trouble at school, he just didn't know what. He said that she had dumped her boyfriend and started hanging out a _lot _with this Amanda girl. He also said that he and Lizzie didn't talk that much anymore. She had stopped confiding in him. Maureen figured it was about time. She was sixteen, she was having her rebellious phase. Plus, Maureen had taken a psychology class in school, and she knew that cops and reverand's kids were the ones to act out the most. Lizzie was growing up in a household with two cops for parents. This was not surprising. ''I won't tell Daddy, but you better have a good excuse to give him. Be thinking of it. Come on, let's go. Mom's anxious to see you. She's been worried.'' She said this albiet a little pointedly, and Liz felt guilty. Which she knew Maureen had been trying to get at.

When they got upstairs to the maternity ward, Dick met them at the elevator. ''Mom just went back to have the baby. She finally got dialated enough. Dad went back with her, so you have time to formulate an excuse. He's pretty mad, too. He was talking about grounding you for the rest of the summer.'' Dickie said.

She groaned. They were taking summer classes, they both had failed a few. They only had class a couple of times in the morning. The rest of the day, she was free to hang with Amanda and collect money from her drug business. ''But that's two entire months from now.'' She complained, walking down the hall to join everyone else, her siblings falling into step with her.

Kathleen was asleep in a chair, Casey and Alex were sitting and talking, Fin was handing Callie a cup of coffee, and Fitz and Ace were sitting on the floor playing cards. Grandpa Don was nowhere to be found. Lizzie went up to Casey and Alex. ''Where's Grandpa?'' She asked, sitting down next to Casey.

Casey replied, ''He went to check in with Munch. Make sure the twins and Eli are OK. He'll be back. He left as soon as your mom was taken back.'' She paused a moment, and lowered her voice. ''I have a tee shirt in my car if you'd like to put it on. Your dad is going to kill you if he sees you in that.'' She said.

Liz smiled gratefully. ''Thanks Aunt Casey.'' She took the keys that Casey handed her and headed out to the elevator. When she got out to where Casey's car was parked, she had received a text. It was from Tom McQuaid. She was surprised. She flipped her phone open to look at it. It said, _Did ur mom have the baby yet? :)_. She smiled to herself. She wondered if he was flirting with her. She had never had a senior do that. She wondered how she felt about that. She still hadn't decided if she was gay or just bi. Not that it mattered, she was with Amanda. And the McQuaids were trouble. They were in summer school because they'd failed every course they'd taken the previous year at their old school. They were supposed to be catching up so they could graduate. She hit reply on the touch screen and her fingers flew over the keyboard as she typed, _not yet. She just went back when I got here. I'll let u know when. :)_.

She unlocked the door to Casey's car and rummaged around in the back of the car before she found the shirt Casey had been talking about. It wasn't a tee shirt, it was her baseball shirt that said "Sex Crimes". Liz didn't care. She was perfectly fine explaining that away than the tube top she had on. She checked to make sure no one was looking and pulled the tube top off and then slipped the Sex Crimes shirt on over her bare breasts.

When she reached the group again, they had gotten a little louder than before. Ace and Fitz were arguing about the poker game, and Casey and Alex seemed to be having a loud discussion about something. Kathleen looked angry at having been woken up. Liz sat down next to Dickie. She asked, ''So what's up, Dickie?''

Her brother looked at her incredulously. '' 'What's up, Dickie'?'' He asked. ''Is that all you have to say to me? You've hardly spoken to me in the past few months.'' He settled back in his chair, hoping she'd apologize so they could start having a real relationship again.

Liz didn't disappoint. ''Look, Dickie, I'm sorry that I haven't been telling you things. I've just been really busy, and I'm doing something that I really shouldn't be, and I didn't want to tell you about it because I wasn't sure you'd want to know. I can totally tell you later, when we aren't here surrounded by all of these people.'' She concluded.

Dick finally smiled at her. ''OK. Cool.'' He lowered his voice an octave and turned to her. ''So, are you dating that Amanda girl? I know you broke up with Jason. It was all over school. He's such a nice guy, Lizzie. He throws the best parties, too. Especially now that he lives with Fitz, 'cause Fitz is never home.''

Lizzie nodded. ''I know. Jason and I are still friends. And yes, I am dating Mandie. Does that bother you? Just don't tell Mom and Daddy yet. I'm still figuring things out. I'm not sure if I'm gay or just bi. It's just experimenting. I do know that I like having sex with her. I lost my v card to Jason though. That was good, so that's how I know I still like guys. See, it's all very confusing.''

Dickie was saved from replying when his father came back to the group. ''It's definitely a girl. All is healthy, and Liv's alright. They're bringing her back in a little bit.'' Elliot said, unable to keep the tears of joy off his face.

Lizzie's being an hour late was forgotten as they all surrounded Elliot in a group hug.

Meanwhile, at Jump Street Chapel, Hanson and Penhall were updating Fuller on what they had found out at the party. They had been surprised to find him there at the Chapel, since it was like, two in the morning. He was there, though, and looking grouchy. ''So she's finally agreed to let us in the network. The only problem is that she doesn't get another shipment in for a month.'' Penhall said.

Fuller looked annoyed. ''Well, I guess you'll be there until then. Go home. Get some sleep. Tomorrow's Saturday. No summer school. I can't believe that she's doing all this in summer school.'' He looked as if he didn't believe that a girl could be behind the biggest drug ring they'd ever busted.

Hanson shrugged. ''She says she's doing it to make money for college. The Stablers _do _have a lot of kids, so it's totally feasible that she would have to help make her own money for college.'' He stared off out the window as Penhall continued to talk with Fuller. He was really starting to want to help this girl. She wasn't a bad kid, she was just going about getting money the wrong way. He almost didn't want to bust her. He wished there was some way out of that....


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Later on that day, after everyone had gone home, Elliot was left at the hospital with his wife and child. Olivia had told him before she went to sleep that he should get one of the baby books and pick a name. She told him that she would love whatever he picked. They had talked about naming her something that was strong. They wanted her to be strong like her mother. Elliot already knew that the middle name was going to be Casey. He knew that Olivia would love that. They already had one named after Alex, and they were _so_ close to Casey. he wanted to pay her homage, too. They had also decided that Casey was going to be the godmother. Elliot looked through the baby book a little, and then finally decided on Scarlett. Scarlett O'Hara was one of the strongest literary characters in American history. He thought Scarlett Casey Stabler was a wonderful name. He just wasn't sure how they could shorten that.

Olivia awoke when he was through with the baby book. She yawned and sat up. ''Did you pick a name?'' She asked, as she got a sip of water from the cup sitting on the table beside the bed.

Elliot nodded. ''Yes. I picked Scarlett Casey.'' He said, pulling his chair closer to the bed and taking her hand. He was debating on telling her about Liz. He wasn't sure how she was going to take it. He didn't want to upset her when she was so happy. She was glad that they had had a healthy baby girl. Finally, he decided that he should tell her before she heard it somewhere else. He didn't want her to get mad at him for withholding it. ''Livvy, I have to tell you something.''

Olivia turned to look at him. ''What's wrong, why are you so serious? This should be a wonderful day, we just had a gorgeous baby girl. And I like the name you chose. Seriously, you're scaring me, Elliot.'' She got a lock of hair out of her eyes, and Elliot could see they were in fact filled with fear.

Elliot took both of her hands in his and said, ''One of the reasons that I was late coming home yesterday is because I got a visit from a couple of cops who work with the Jump Street program. Have you heard of it?'' He asked, and she shook her head. ''I hadn't either. It's based in Queens, and they use young-looking cops to go undercover at high schools, to catch kids doing drugs, and things like that. It was two young men, Tom Hanson and Doug Penhall. They're undercover at the twins' school, and they're investigating Lizzie. She is suspected to be behind the biggest drug ring they've ever seen. She has three schools under her control, with about ten kids working for her at each one. She and one of her friends are in charge of it. They deal in weed and pharms.''

Olivia put one of her hands to her mouth. She could hardly believe this. She knew that kids could have rebellious stages, and that was fine with her, but Lizzie? Doing DRUGS? This was insane! She could not find a way out of this. She knew that if Lizzie was indeed the one behind this, she could go to jail for YEARS. They weren't going to go easy on her because of both her parents being cops. ''Oh my God, Elliot. What are we going to do?'' She asked.

Elliot shrugged. ''I don't know. The way Tom and Doug talked, she is definitely behind this, and they have to bust her. I don't know what we can do. Tom suggested that we not say anything about knowing about it, because then she'll shut up shop and possibly run. And I believe that she will run, if we say anything to her. I want to talk to Dickie, though, and see if he knows anything. I just don't know how to talk to him without Lizzie finding out. They tell each other everything.''

Olivia shook her head, as if in a daze. ''Not anymore. Dick was talking to me about that not too long ago. She's stopped confiding in him. He doesn't know why and it's very upsetting for him. She still talks to Casey, though. I've seen them in the kitchen together. We should ask her. We can tell her that she doesn't have to tell us anything unless she knows something about the drugs. I don't want to pry into Lizzie's life unless we have to. I don't want her to think that she can't trust Casey. I'm glad that she has another adult she trusts besides us to tell things to.'' She began to cry.

Elliot sat on the edge of the bed and took her in his arms. He held her close as she cried on his shoulder. She could hardly believe that this was happening. It was the end of the world. Their child was going to go to jail. She would be tried as an adult and get put in jail. They weren't going to get lucky enough for her to go to juvie. ''It's going to be OK. We're just going to have to deal with this. There's no way out of it.'' He said, and she sobbed harder.

Casey interrupted by knocking lightly on the door with her knuckles. She had come to visit for a little while. She asked, ''Oh my God, Livvy, what's wrong? The baby's alright, right? Nothing happened?'' She pulled up the other chair and sat it next to the bed.

Olivia sniffled and Elliot handed her a tissue. ''No, Scarlett's fine. That's her name. Scarlett Casey.'' She said, and Casey smiled. ''We named her after you, and we'd like you to be her godmother, if that's alright.'' She leaned her head against Elliot's shoulder.

Casey grinned. ''Of course I will. Nothing would make me happier.'' She paused, and then asked, ''But that's not why you're crying. Those were not happy tears. Spill, Stabler. What's wrong?''

Olivia shook her head, and Elliot knew that meant he had to be the one to tell her. ''Lizzie is most likely behind one of the biggest drug rings in high school history. The Jump Street program out of Queens is investigating.'' He said.

Casey's mouth dropped open. ''Oh my God. What are you going to do?'' She had actually heard of the Jump Street team before from some of the lawyers in the office. It was supposed to be an excellent program.

Elliot said, ''There isn't much we can do according to the officers in charge of the investigation. She has to go to jail. The operation isn't just that, it's turning into an empire. Our daughter is a drug kingpin. This is insane. I can't believe my daughter is turning out this way. I mean, people can make mistakes, but she's going to go to jail for at least five years. This is going to ruin her life.''

Casey sighed. ''I can't believe this. She's been telling me things, but nothing like this. If she had, I swear I would have said something.'' She knew all about Jason and Liz having sex, she knew about how Liz was starting to feel for Amanda, how Lizzie was sorry she had kind of shut Dickie out, the fact that Lizzie thought Kathleen was having a nervous breakdown, that sort of thing. Lizzie had never said anything about being involved in something that huge.

Olivia nodded. ''I know you would have. We just have to deal with the reality in front of us. She's going to get busted, and there's nothing we can do about it. I hate this. How could she do this, Elliot? She's dealing _drugs_. I never thought that she was perfect, but I didn't think she'd ever be calpable of something like this.''

Elliot kissed the top of her head. ''I know. I can't believe this either. Maybe she's had some subconscious issues about Kathy's death or something. I just wish I could do something to help her. I feel so helpless.''

Meanwhile, Liz and Dickie were in her room. She had just finished telling him about the drug operation. ''And as soon as I get enough money for college, I'm going to close up shop.'' She wasn't going to tell even Dickie about her and Amanda running away together. She had no plans to go to college. She had before, but that was before she met Amanda. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with her, and she didn't care what they ended up doing. They were probably going to go to Vermont first, and live there till they turned eighteen so they could get married without a parent's consent.

Dickie's mouth was open, he was in such shock. ''Liz, are you fucking insane? You're running a drug operation! In three different schools! If you get caught, you're going to jail! Mom and Dad can't keep you from getting sent there. You're going to get tried as an adult and get put in jail. I can't believe that you're doing this. Is she really worth this?''

Liz smiled. ''Yes. She is.'' She didn't even care that Dickie had guessed her real intentions. If anyone was going to, he would. ''I love her, Dickie. I really love her. More than I have ever loved anyone in my life, except the family. And I know that Mom and Dad will approve, but Amanda and I want a life for ourselves. We want to do everything on our own. We're going to go to Vermont so in two years we can get married. Gay marriage is legal there.''

Her brother was still shaking his head. ''I can't believe that you're doing this, Lizzie. I guess that Mom and Dad fucked up somewhere, because you shouldn't be talking so cavalierly about this. You're DEALING DRUGS.'' He said, and then added, ''Has that not sunk in? It's illegal. This isn't some little messup. This is the big time.''

Liz got up off Dickie's bed. ''Look, I didn't tell you to get your opinion, I told you because you're my twin brother and you're supposed to be my best friend. I'm trying to include you like you wanted. You don't get to tell me how to live my life. I know that it's illegal, but it's the fastest way to make a lot of money quickly. I don't sell to anyone dangerous, there's no trail to me from my supplier, and I've got everyone so scared of me that they are never going to tell it's me that they're dealing with. I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to get caught. Especially if you keep your fucking mouth shut.'' She left the room in a huff, her jean shorts slipping just enough that Dickie was able to discover, with quite a bit of disgust, that she had a thong on again.

Liz adjusted her mood as soon as she got downstairs. She didn't know who was home and didn't want to arouse suspicions about her bad mood. She went into the kitchen to make herself something to eat. As she did, her phone made a noise. It was in the clip she wore on her shorts. She pulled it out and flipped her phone open. It was from Tom McQuaid again. _What's up? We partying tomorrow night? You want to skip school? Hang out?_ She hit reply and her fingers began flying over the keyboard. _I guess. Amanda and I will need to come up with a good excuse. I have to keep my good girl image. I'll hit you back. _

She got a Pepsi out of the fridge and went to the pantry, to see what there was to make. While she did so, she sent a text to Amanda, asking her if she wanted to get the same gang together for a party. She wanted to go with her to the movies after school, and possibly some shopping. She needed to do some friends things with her, to keep her parents off her back. Not that they were suspicious, it was a pre-emptive strike.

Doug and Tom were hanging out at Judy's. Doug was staying with her while his apartment was being painted. He was getting it ready to show the landlord, so he could move out. He wanted it to look nice, because he wanted the landlord able to find someone to rent it right away so he would feel less guilty for moving out. Although he shouldn't, since he and Judy had been together for eleven months. Doug was getting a beer out of the fridge. ''So, what's next? You texted her, right?'' He asked.

Tom nodded and sat back down on the couch, holding a bowl of cereal. ''Yes, she told me she'd get with Amanda and hit me back.'' He sighed and then turned to look at his best friend. ''Do you think that we're going to win this case?''

Doug smiled and shrugged. ''Of course. We're the McQuaids! We rock, man!'' He said, downing the rest of his beer. He couldn't be happier. He loved his job, he loved his girlfriend, he loved Tom, his life couldn't get any better. Not even this case was bothering him, because he was working it with Tommy. He knew they'd catch their man. Or, well, woman in this case.

Tom just nodded, lost in thought. He hadn't told Doug that he was planning on letting Liz get away. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was planning on running away with Amanda, not saving money for college. He could tell. She was with Amanda constantly, and when they had gone upstairs at the party, he was sure they'd had sex. He could understand that Liz was wanting a life with who she had chosen to be with. He couldn't begrudge her that. Could he?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

A couple of days later, Elliot had gone back to work, and Olivia and Scarlett were home from the hospital. He had stayed at home with them for a day when Olivia made him go back. She knew that they were working a big case, and as long as he promised to be home at a decent hour, she was fine with him going back. He was just sitting down at his desk to get ready for the day when his phone rang. ''Captain Stabler.'' He said.

It was Doug Penhall. ''Just wanted to tell you that we've got into her group. We have successful inflitration. She's not getting a shipment for another month, so we'll still be on the case for that long. It looks like she's the one behind this, Captain. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you.''

Elliot sighed. ''Thanks, Penhall. And please, call me Elliot. And it's not your fault. My daughter was the one that decided to do this. I don't blame you in the slightest. Just please make sure that she's safe. I don't want her killed in a drug deal gone wrong.'' He had known that Penhall and Hanson were right, he just hadn't wanted to believe it.

He hung up the phone after Penhall telling him that he'd be in touch, and sighed, rubbing his temples. He couldn't believe that this was happening. He _had _made sure to check Liz and Dickie before they had gone off to school. He had used the excuse that since they were in summer school, he had to make sure that they were behaving. He knew that they wouldn't have made too much of a fuss, Olivia and Scarlett had been upstairs sleeping. Eli, Nicky, and Alex had all been fed and put in the living room. Casey was on vacation, and she was using it to lie around the house and relax.

Elliot left the office to get himself some coffee. He hoped like hell Munch hadn't made it, his coffee tended to suck. He was at the pot when Callie came up to him. He said without looking, ''Hi Callie. How're you this morning?'' He poured his coffee and pulled out some sugar.

Callie's long brown hair was pulled into a ponytail today, and she wished that Elliot would look at her. Yeah, she was still harboring her secret crush. It was annoying and painful, and she just wished it would go away. Especially now that Olivia had had yet another child of Elliot's. They had like, eight kids now. She knew that was not unusual for Catholic families. She hoped that it would be their last, though. She knew Olivia probably did, too. ''Morning, El. I'm good. Ace drank all the coffee again this morning. Had to settle for mine. It's OK though. I make good coffee.'' Ackerley Webb, aka Ace, was her ex-boyfriend and roommate, and "Toot" was her nickname for Fin. She was the only one allowed to call him that, though.

Elliot did as she secretly wished, and turned to look at her. ''Ah, good, Munch didn't make this. Speaking of, where are all my dectectives this morning? I see you and Fitz.'' Fitz was sitting at his desk, pouring over his DD5s, trying to get them finished.

Callie said, ''Uncle Munch and Fin are both running a little late this morning because Uncle Munch broke their alarm clock when he threw it up against the wall yesterday morning, and so they had to use their cell phones, and only one went off because Fin's died during the night. They had to charge Fin's cell before they came to work. They said they'd be here asap. And I dunno where Ace is, he left at the same time I did.''

Elliot said, ''OK. Well, if we get any calls for any cases, you can go out with Fitz until your partner gets here. I need to get someone temporary in here until I can see if I'm going to be able to bring Olivia back to work. I don't know if IAB is going to let me, she may have to try working for Queens.''

Callie got her own coffee as Munch and Fin came in the door, calling out apologies. She said, ''Toot, Uncle Munch. Morning. I took the liberty of explaining to Captain Stabler for you.'' She took her coffee to her desk.

Fin took his and his boyfriend's coats and hung them up. ''So, I feel that I must announce to you all that John and I are going to have a commitment ceremony. El, will you be my best man? And Cal, will you be a groomsperson?'' He was smiling from ear to ear.

Elliot grinned and went to give them both a hug. ''Excellent! Of course I will. Liv is going to be in it, too, right? You know that she'll kill you if she's not.'' His blue eyes were twinkling. This was great news!

Fin nodded. ''Duh, of course. I want her to give me away. My son Ken's going to be a groomsman, too, and we are probably going to have it small, so we were thinking your guys' place? We'd really appreciate it.''

Elliot smiled. ''Of course, Fin. That's not a problem. I'll have to double check with Liv, of course, but I'm sure it won't be a big deal. Are you going to get interviewed by IAB before you get married? Like Liv and I had to do?''

Fin shrugged. ''I don't know. Possibly. I hope not. I don't want to have to deal with IAB, man.'' He went to get himself a cup of coffee. Then he stopped and turned back to look at El and Callie. ''Who made this coffee before I drink it?'' He asked.

Callie replied, ''I did, it's safe.'' Munch wasn't the only one in the precinct who made bad coffee. She watched as Elliot headed into his office and her phone started ringing. She still loved him so much. She had never loved anyone in her entire life like she loved him. She was even thinking of transferring out of SVU because she didn't want to work with him anymore. She was jolted out of her reverie by Fitz giving her a look, like, ''You'd better answer that''. She snatched up the phone and said businesslike, ''Dect. Curtis, SVU, how may I help you?'' Fitz laughed under his breath as she glared at him.

There was a scared voice on the other end of the phone. It was a young girl. ''Hi, this is Amanda Jones, I'm Captain Stabler's daughter's girlfriend, and she's just been shot. He's going to want to be here.'' There was a muffling noise, and she was yelling, ''Tom, get AWAY from her. You touch her before the bus gets here and I will fucking KILL you.'' Callie figured that she must have forgot she was on the phone with the cops. Then she sounded as if she was talking to Callie again. ''So you all might want to let Cap'tin Stabler know, I'm not going to tell him, he needs to see it for himself. She's going to Bethel United.'' And she was gone.

Callie put down the phone, stunned. She couldn't tell him this. She knew she had to, but she was afraid of what he was going to do. She had heard tales of his anger. She began to walk in a trance to his office. Callie paused outside the door, gathering up her courage, and knocked. She heard his sexy deep voice call, ''Come in,'' and she opened the door and stepped inside. She closed it behind her and stepped up to the desk. ''Captain, El, I need to tell you something. It's really important.''

Elliot looked up at her, watching as her mouth began to move in slow motion. She was saying something about Liz being shot, and he needed to go down to Bethel United. He just grabbed his cell off the desk and left, stammering something. He called Liv on the way out to his car. He wasn't even sure what he said to her, but she seemed very upset, so it must have been the right thing.

When he got to the hospital, he had begun to get really angry. This wasn't supposed to have happened. He saw Penhall, Hanson, and a girl that must have been Amanda standing in the ER waiting room. He also saw Olivia, sitting with Dick and Maureen. Olivia had tears coursing down her cheeks. Elliot ignored the others and went straight to Olivia. He slipped his arms around her and pulled her close. After a minute, he asked, ''How is she?''

Olivia couldn't hardly breathe. She buried her head in Elliot's shoulder for a minute, before she managed to get out, ''She died twenty minutes ago, Elliot. There was just too much blood loss. Tom and Doug tried to stop the guy who shot her, but he got away. He has a drug ring in another school and he was mad that our daughter was taking away his competition. Our daughter was killed in a drug related homicide. She was sixteen years old, El.'' She was overtaken by her tears again and buried her head in her husband's shoulder again.

Elliot held her for a minute, then said, ''Hold on, baby. I need to talk to Penhall and Hanson for a minute.'' He eased her back down on the waiting room chair and took a deep breath before he went to talk to the man children. He stood in front of them, willing away the tears that were threatening to surface. ''How the hell could you let this happen to my little girl?'' He demanded.

Hanson and Penhall looked to each other, but then Amanda spoke up. ''This isn't the McQuaids' fault, Capt'in Stabler. Liz was dealing with the wrong guys, and she got caught in the crossfire. I can't believe that I was letting her do this.'' She was wiping tears off her face. Her long brown hair hung limply to her shoulders. She was just wearing jeans and a cropped tee. She hadn't expected this to be the last time that she and Liz would be together. She'd just dressed for hanging out with her and the McQuaid brothers.

Elliot said, ''What are you talking about? You're Amanda, right? What does Liz getting shot in a drug war have to do with you?'' He was beginning to think that maybe Amanda was the one that had gotten Liz into drugs in the first place.

Amanda took a deep, shaky breath. ''Mr. Stabler, I was your daughter's girlfriend. She was selling the drugs so that we could move to Vermont and get married. We were going to live there until we were eighteen. I know that this is all shocking, but really, the McQuaids have nothing to do with this. We were meeting them in the park so we could hang out. They didn't know what we were doing there.''

Elliot had to remind himself that she was a sixteen year old girl so that he wouldn't hit her. ''Are you telling me that you let her do something that dangerous? I know you think you loved her, but you didn't. If you really had, you would have waited until you were old enough to start a life together. Her mother and I would have been fine with the two of you being together. Leave. Leave now.'' He folded his arms and glared at her.

Amanda knew from Liz that there was no arguing with him. She said bye to her friends and grabbed her stuff. On her way past him, she turned to Elliot. ''I know that you don't want to believe it, because you need someone to blame this on right now, but I really did love your daughter. One day you'll realize that.''

Once she was gone, Elliot turned back to "the McQuaid brothers". He had not only wanted her to leave, but he needed her to so he didn't blow Penhall and Hanson's cover. ''What the hell? I thought you had this under control? HOW THE FUCK is this under control?'' Elliot practically yelled, making Olivia and his other children look up in surprise.

Hanson said, ''Calm down, Elliot. I know that you're upset, but yelling at us isn't going to help anything. We were only just getting there when she was shot. I'm sorry. I know that that isn't going to make you feel any better. We have to stay undercover for awhile longer to see if we can catch this guy. Just let us try. We owe you and Liz that much.''

Olivia saw that this was going to get ugly by the look on her husband's face and got up and went to grab his arm. ''Come on, baby, there's lots of forms for us to sign, and they want us to go and view the body, make sure that it's her and everything.'' She apologised to Penhall and Hanson and took Elliot up to the counter.

A half an hour later, they were viewing Liz in the hospital morgue. In all the years that Elliot had been doing the job, he never thought that he would be seeing his daughter like this. He finally let the tears come, and he succombed to them in his wife's arms.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The next morning, they awoke water logged. Olivia had never cried so much in her entire life. She sat up in bed, moving hair out of her eyes. She turned to look at Elliot. He was opening his eyes very reluctantly. She ran her hand through his hair and kissed his forehead. ''Morning baby.'' She said, taking his hand in her own.

Elliot sat up, looking the oldest she'd ever seen him look. He had been through so much since last night. They had just sat on the bed and cried until they'd started to fall asleep. Casey had gladly taken care of the babies. He ran his free hand over his face and kissed her cheek. ''I don't even want to get out of this bed. And we have so many things to get going. I have to get a funeral home, a casket.....'' His voice broke as he began to cry again.

Olivia immediately wrapped her arms around him and held him as he cried on her shoulder. She started crying again too, and they rocked back and forth for awhile.

A little while later, they headed downstairs. Casey was in the kitchen with the youngest of their brood, making breakfast. Dickie hadn't come down yet. He had been in his room since they had come home from the hospital the day before. Elliot was really worried about how he was going to take this. He and Lizzie had been growing apart, but they had still been so close for their entire lives. Elliot knew that Dick was going to take this really hard.

Casey handed her friends some coffee. ''So how are you this morning? You need me to call anyone? Do anything? I'm your girl.'' She looked as if she'd cried nearly as much as they did the night before.

Elliot sighed as he rubbed his eyes. He then picked up his coffee cup and took a long swallow. ''I dunno Case. I just want to crawl into a whole and die. Parents are not supposed to have to bury their children.'' He ran his hand through Eli's blonde curls and sighed, tears threatening to spill again.

The doorbell rang, much to their surprise. Maureen and Kathleen had spent the night there, in Casey's room with her. They were still upstairs, asleep. Casey went to get it. When she swung open the door, she was not surprised to find Fin, Munch, and Alex. ''You guys couldn't have staggered yourselves? They're really really messed up right now. I don't want you to overwhelm them.'' Casey said softly.

Fin nodded. ''I know, but we were on the way to work and we really needed to see them. Liv's like my baby sister, so that means that Elliot is my brother in law. They're family. I have to make sure that they know they can ask me to do anything and I will do it. Casey, please, just let us in. If they want us to leave, we'll leave.''

Casey was a sucker for big brown eyes, so she relented. She let them in, but made Alex stand with her by the door. ''Has anyone talked to the rest of the squad? Is Callie going to be coming over here with her blue eyes all full of concern for El? I have to say, I know that she will mean well, but under the circumstances, that would not be the best thing right now.''

Alex nodded. ''I know. I called her last night. I told her that while it was great that she wanted to be there for El and his family, it would probably be a good idea to just go to work and send her condolences with one of us. She was a little angry at me, especially since she knows my feelings for Liv. She actually shot back with that, and I said my situation was very different because I've known them a lot longer than she has, and they're going to expect me to be here. No one is going to expect her, Ace, or Fitz to show up here. They're nice people, but they just don't have the time in that we do. They don't feel like family yet.''

Casey winced. ''Ouch. Please tell me that you didn't say that to her. I'm sure that she wouldn't have taken that lightly.'' She agreed with Alex though. Callie, Ace, and Fitz were very nice people, but they really weren't needed here. And Alex was also right that they just didn't feel like they fit in just yet. She hoped that eventually they would, but they just didn't right now.

They went on in the kitchen, where Olivia was sobbing on Fin's shoulder. Elliot was stoically talking to John. Casey wiped her own eyes and went to see if they had enough coffee for their friends.

Olivia stepped back from Fin, wiping her eyes. He kissed her on the forehead and kept ahold of her. She said, ''You guys really didn't have to come all the way out here this morning. We know you care.'' She was glad they had, though. She felt her brother's strong arm around her, and she felt safe and loved. Almost as much as if it were El's arm around her. She met his eyes, and they said so much. Olivia knew how much he still loved her with that look. She could read it in his eyes, it was like that long ago day with Gitano all over again. Wiping tears from her eyes, she said, ''Daddy's coming in a little while. Hey, who's going to be in charge of the Unit while El's gone?''

Munch tilted his head a little. ''That would be me, baby sister to be. I am not happy about the prospect.'' He then turned to Elliot. ''Take your time though, I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through right now.''

Dick was lying on his bed, his eyes drooping a little. He was looking through a printout of an email that his sister's girlfriend had emailed him the night before. He could hear his extended family downstairs, and he was glad that they had come to make sure that his parents and his siblings were alright. Dick hardly knew what to do. He couldn't ever remember being this devastated in his entire life. He might even be more upset about losing Liz than he was Kathy. And Kathy was his mother. That's just how much he loved his sister. He just wasn't sure that he agreed that Amanda had.

_Dick, _

_It's Amanda Jones. I was Lizzie's girlfriend before she was taken from me. I just wanted you to know that even though you guys had grown apart a little, she still loved you a lot. She talked about you all of the time. She loved her entire family soooooo much. I could tell. We spent a lot of time together, Liz and I, and a lot of that time was spent telling me about her family. If this email offends you I'm sorry. I just had to tell you that I'm going to miss her so much, and if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I know that your dad is going to blame me for Liz being into drugs. I swear, it was all her idea. I couldn't have talked her out of it if I tried. I feel so sick when I think of what happened to her. I want to be able to come to the funeral. If you could see if there was a way I could do that I would be soooooo grateful. If not, I understand. I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable in any way. Please get back to me. _

_Amanda_

Dick wasn't sure what to think. He knew she was right, though. Elliot was never going to want her to come to the funeral. He had heard what his father had said to the girl. He didn't think that Amanda was the one to blame, though. He knew that his sister had been very stubborn. He doubted that anyone would have been able to talk her out of the drug business if they had tried. She always did everything that she set her mind to wholeheartedly.

A few minutes later, he decided to head on down so his parents would know he was alright. He wasn't sure that he was, but he knew that they were worried. He wasn't sure how he should act. He didn't want them fawning over him, and if he acted like he was too upset, they would. And if he acted like he was too fine with it, they would. He was going to have to do something in the middle.

When he got downstairs, only Alex and Casey sat with his parents and siblings. He knew he had heard Uncle Fin and Uncle Munch. ''Wasn't Uncle Munch and Uncle Fin here?'' He asked as he went to get himself some coffee. He was refraining from school that day.

Olivia, who was now sitting on Elliot's lap, running her hands in his hair, replied, ''Yes, they were here, but they had to go to work. Aunt Alex decided to stay for a bit since she doesn't have to be in court just yet.'' She paused, and then turned to look at her son. ''Are you going to eat something? I know that you probably don't feel like it, but you will feel better if you do.''

Dick knew his mother was just trying to take care of him, so he saved the smart ass comment that had readily come to his lips. ''I guess I can have a bowl of cereal real quick. I just want to go up to my room, Mom. I just came down to see Uncle Munch, Uncle Fin, and Aunt Alex.'' He got a bowl out of the cupboard.

Olivia said, ''Well, Aunt Alex is still here. Stay downstairs with us until she has to leave, and then you can stay in your room the rest of the day if you want, OK?'' She didn't want to make Dickie do anything that he didn't want to do, but she wanted to see him. She wanted to see how he was handling everything.

He didn't think that that was a bad compromise, so he agreed to it. Besides, he liked Aunt Alex. She wasn't as awesome as Aunt Casey, but she was pretty cool. He didn't mind calling all of his parents' friends "aunt" and "uncle". He knew that they were the closest to family that Olivia had. He wanted his mom to be happy. And besides, he really thought his uncles were cool. He was glad that they had asked him to be one of the groomsmen. ''Sure, Mom.'' He turned to look at Aunt Alex. ''Hi, Aunt Alex. Do you get to try any good cases today?'' He didn't want to talk about Liz.

Alex shrugged. ''I've got a cut and dry homicide case that we have to begin today. I had more interesting cases when I was in SVU. I'm jealous Casey.'' She said, getting up to get more coffee.

Casey could hardly believe that they were having such a casual conversation, but she could understand it. They didn't want to discuss Liz's death. Alex was going to catch the case when they caught the guy. Casey was glad that she wasn't going to be the one to handle it. ''Yeah, it's a lot of fun, having to deal with molested kids and rape victims.'' She said, getting up. ''Well, I have to get to the office. I have a case to begin research for.'' She turned to Olivia and Elliot. ''You guys let me know if you need anything. I'll probably be late, I've got a lot of work to do. If I'll be earlier I'll call.''

Olivia nodded and hugged her bye. She then got up to get herself a cup of coffee. As she reached into the cabinet, she saw Liz's coffee cup sitting on the shelf next to hers and began to cry. Elliot was instantly at her side, slipping his arms around her. He ran his hands through her hair and kissed her on the head. She collapsed against him, and Dick and Alex looked at each other, not sure what to do. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore, and wiped her eyes. She told Elliot softly, ''I'm fine.'' He kissed her again and slowly released her.

Elliot took his daughter's coffee cup and tossed it in the trash. He never wanted to see it again. He totally didn't expect what happened next. His son asked him if Amanda was welcome at the funeral. He whipped his head around in shock. ''Are you serious?'' He felt himself yelling. ''You have got to be kidding me, Richard Stabler!''

Dick stood up to face his father. ''Dad, she lost someone too. She loved Liz, they were going to skip to Vermont to get married when they turned eighteen. You don't do that with someone when you're just dating them. Liz would want her there.'' He yelled, matching his father for volume.

Olivia stepped between the two of them, looking at Elliot first. ''Amanda Jones will be at that funeral if she wants to be. She was one of the last people to see our daughter alive, and if she wants to be there, she can. Elliot Stabler, you're not going to win this one. And if those McQuaid brothers want to come, they can.'' She was actually surprised that their cover hadn't been blown.

Meanwhile, Tom Hanson and Doug Penhall were standing at the crime scene. They had skipped school that day, claiming emotional distress, so they could check out the scene, make sure the killer hadn't left anything behind. Doug got a text message. It was from Amanda. He said, ''Amanda wants to know if the cops interviewed us. She wants to know what we told them.'' He said.

Tom shrugged. ''Our cover wasn't blown, thank God, so just tell her that we didn't tell them anything. Amanda took over the business for Liz. I don't know why she's still doing it, unless she wants to leave town, get away from the memories.'' As he stared at Liz Stabler's blood stained on the sidewalk pavement, he all of a sudden didn't blame her. This case was making him sick. She had been such a good kid. She'd just fallen off the wagon a bit.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A couple of days later, it was time for the funeral. Elliot awoke reluctantly. Olivia hadn't slept well, she was already awake and in the shower. The past two days had passed by in a blur. Elliot could hardly remember having made any of the arrangements. They'd gotten all the evidence they could so that they could go ahead and bury her. Hanson had put a rush on it for him. He had appreciated that. They also thought they might have it narrowed down to who might have killed her. It was possibly this school in Brooklyn near where Liz had had control of her school.

Elliot slowly slid out of bed. As he did so, he saw Maureen standing in the doorway. She and Kathleen had been staying at the house in Casey's room the past couple of days. He was glad he'd gone to bed with boxers on. He went to grab his soft blue robe that had seen better days. ''What's up, Mo?'' He asked.

Maureen was already ready for the funeral. It was in a couple of hours. She had pulled her long blonde hair back into an updo and wore a very nice dark grey suit. She said, ''Daddy, I'm worried about Mom. She's acting as if she doesn't care about her own life anymore. It's really starting to worry me.''

Elliot started to head downstairs to get some breakfast, Maureen following. ''What do you want, Maureen? She just lost a child. I don't know how you want her to be acting.'' He got out a coffee cup and nodded at Casey, who was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper.

Maureen rolled her eyes. ''I know, Daddy. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how she hasn't eaten anything for two days, and Katie and I have had to make sure that the babies are taken care of because all she's been doing is sitting up in the bedroom staring into space. You'd know that if you hadn't spent the last two days calling everyone under the sun. I know all of that stuff had to be done, but Aunt Casey offered to help, and you didn't let her. Mom needs you. You have to help each other through this. Don't shut her out, Daddy. We can't go through you breaking up with her like you did with Mom. She's our _mom_ now.''

Elliot looked at her. Tears had begun to fill his eyes. ''Is that what you're worried about? Your mother and I aren't going to break up. I'm never leaving her. We're going to get through this together. Livvy and I is for life. There's no ifs ands or buts about it. I'd die before I'd leave her.'' His daughter's fears abated, she headed back into the living room with Kathleen and the babies.

Olivia came down a few minutes later. Her hair was blown dry and hung loose. She wore a black skirt and black blazer. A grey shirt was underneath. She wore black flats. She barely acknowledged any of them as she got out a coffee cup out of the cubboard. Elliot watched with interest. He wanted to see if there was any truth to what Maureen had been talking about. She poured some coffee in the cup and sat down at the table. She was staring into space.

Elliot sat down next to her, taking one of her hands in his. ''Liv, baby, are you OK this morning?'' He asked, kissing her hand. She didn't even look at him. ''Liv, honey, please. Look at me. I'm worried about you.''

Olivia turned her brown eyes on him. Tears had filled them. ''El, we're going to bury our child today. What more do you want from me?'' She wiped a falling tear off her face.

Elliot wiped the other from the other eye, and nodded. ''I know, baby, I just want to make sure that you're alright. Be as sad as you want.'' He knew that saying anything else was going to upset her greatly. He wanted to avoid a fight if he could.

Olivia thanked him and sat quietly, drinking her coffee. Casey watched her, very concerned. She hadn't spoken to Casey in two days. It was very disconcerting. She and Olivia were best friends, they talked every day. It was worrying her that they hadn't spoken. She was wondering what Liv was feeling. She didn't want her to bottle it all up.

The doorbell rang, surprising them. They weren't expecting anyone. Casey went to get it. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't Callie. She had been calling Casey the past two days, wondering if it was going to be alright if she came to the funeral. Casey had been trying to tell her that it wasn't going to be a good idea. She knew Callie was going to be burning her bridges pretty soon. She was going to have to just get over Elliot. If she did, then maybe she'd be able to be friends with the squad. Right now, the only ones on her side were Casey, Alex, Fin, Fitz, and Ace. And Ace and Fitz were only on her side because they had known her a really long time. Casey could only do so much for her.

To her great surprise and relief, it was Fin. He smiled softly at her and gave her a hug. She surprised herself by crying on his shoulder. ''It's just so stupid, Fin.'' She said, as he ran his hand up and down her back. They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, and then she stepped back to let him in.

Fin stopped her before they headed in to the kitchen. ''How's Liv and El been? Neither of them have answered my calls. I just want them to know how sorry I am for them. Especially Liv, she's my baby sister.''

Casey shrugged. ''All I know is not good. Olivia hasn't spoken to practically anyone the last two days, and El's been making himself crazy making all the arrangements. Maureen actually just yelled at him for not taking me up on my offer to help make some of the calls. I just don't know what to do, Fin. I can't make them talk about it, but I don't want to give them too much space, either. I'm really worried about Liv. I think she might be close to just going over the edge and being completely depressed.''

Fin knew he'd be that way if it was his kid. He couldn't began to fathom how either of them was feeling. ''Just give them a couple of weeks before you start planning an intervention.'' He headed for the kitchen, Casey following. She was still in her pajammas, she was going to have to go and get ready. When Fin entered the kitchen, he headed straight for Liv. She began to cry at the sight of him, but she let him put his arms around her.

Casey told Elliot, ''El, I'm going to go and get ready.'' She was thinking about what she should wear. She wasn't sure. Elliot barely glanced at her as she told him and headed up to shower.

The funeral was a small affair. Hanson and Penhall had shown, with Hoffs coming for support. Everyone from SVU was there, and some of Kathy's family and some ofthe kids from Liz's school. Liv had insisted on Amanda standing with the family, much to Elliot's and Amanda's annoyance. Amanda had been fully prepared to stand with who she believed to be the McQuaids. She felt awkward standing with them. She stood next to Dickie, she at least knew him from school.

Elliot and Casey had asked Casey to speak for them. Neither of them thought they could get through it. She walked up to the podium now, gathering all her strength. She wasn't so sure she could make it through this, either. She had elected Fin to come and save her if she couldn't. She pulled the paper she'd written down her words on in the pocket of her dark grey suit and unfolded it. ''I'm Casey Novak, I am a friend of the family. Olivia and Elliot asked me to speak for them. They were both afraid of breaking down up here. I'm not so sure I can make it myself, but I told them I would try.'' She paused, and began again. ''Elizabeth was our pride and joy. We tried to do the best we could by her since her mother was murdered. No one loved her more than we did. We tried to be everything that she could ever need or want. We were disappointed to find that she had been dealing drugs. Now we have to live the rest of our lives knowing that not only our daughter died before us, but by a drug dealer in a drug deal gone wrong. It has filled us with so much pain and sorrow. We can only hope that Lizzie is safe in heaven, where nothing else can hurt her.'' She put the paper back in her pocket, and touched the casket before going back to her family. They had chosen to have the service in the cemetary, and just lay her to rest there.

The kids had all chosen to decline saying something, so the minister got back to the podium. He spoke of how great a kid Liz had been, how many friends she'd had, and then the school band played _Go Rest High On That Mountain, _a wonderful Vince Gill song. Olivia kept her head buried in El's shoulder for most of the service. She could hardly fathom going on in this world without Liz there. She had only been sixteen years old. How was this fair? She should have had her entire life ahead of her. Olivia wasn't sure that she could stand anymore of this. She whispered to El, ''I have to go. I can't do this. She's lying in that coffin, and we're about to put her in the ground. I can't......'' She tore herself from her husband and started walking as fast as she could for the car. She was feeling like she was going to throw up.

Elliot wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to see Liv put in the ground, because it was so final. He needed to see that, to know she was really gone. He didn't want Liv to think that he was abandoning her in her grief. To his relief, Fin had it handled. He had seen El's internal struggle and had headed off after his sister. Elliot turned back to watch as the casket was interred. He felt tears slipping down his face. He could hardly believe that they had to go on without her. He felt like he was standing on a precipice, holding out his hand for her, and she wasn't grabbing back. He couldn't believe that he had just buried his child. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Hanson and Penhall were at their new school. They were going to try and figure out which kid at the rival school of Liz's was the one that had killed her. It had been no problem getting them transferred, since they didn't need to be at Liz's anymore. The only reason they had been there in the first place was to catch her.

Doug led them down the hall to their locker. He hated summer school. Only because it was so nice outside and they had to be inside learning things that they already knew. He loved this job, not just not in the summer. He checked the papers they'd handed him for the combination as Tommy leaned against the locker next to theirs. He couldn't believe that this school was still operating making kids share lockers. It was ludicrous. ''So, Tommy, you have any idea who could have done this or are we going to have to start all over and try to figure out who's into drugs here?''

Tom tried to ignore his best friend calling him Tommy again. ''I think I have some ideas. Liz complained about a couple of guys here. Brandon Langton, and Drydon Scott.'' He was wearing the trademark baggy jeans, (which slung very low on his slim hips without a belt), a large red tee, a plaid vest, and a jean jacket. He was actually quite comfortable, since the air conditioning was on full blast. He was surprised that the school had it.

His best friend had on the trademark baggy jeans, too, although his were a darker wash, a blue tee shirt that hung down to his knees, a bandanna tied around his head, and a leather jacket. He deposited a couple of his books, and kept the rest he was holding. It wouldn't be cool to have a bookbag, so he hadn't brought one. Tom had chosen to not bring books or a bag. He was really going all out on their cover. Doug slammed the locker shut and turned around to lean on it next to Tom. ''So that's who we have to make friends with. We'll tell them that we want to get in with them, since Liz's operation was too dangerous for us to continue to work in.''

Tom said, ''Only if they already know who we are. We can can just approach them and tell them we want in, like we did with Liz at first. What's our first class? They made sure that we had at least two with them.'' He wiped his long bangs out of his face.

Doug pulled out their class schedules. ''It's English.'' He said, ''It's upstairs on the second floor.'' He put the schedule back in his jeans pocket and turned to look at his friend. ''You really liked Liz, didn't you? You were going to try and find some way to help her out of getting put in jail for a long time, weren't you?''

Tom couldn't believe that Doug had figured that out. ''How did you know? I was. She was just a kid that got in with the wrong crowd. I could tell she was a good kid. I think it's awful what happened to her. Her parents are going to have to live with that the rest of their lives. I really like her mom. She let Amanda stand with them.''

Doug said, ''Did you see her leave the service? It was too much for her to handle. That black guy she calls her brother went after her. Remember Lizzie talking about her Uncle Fin? That was him. I like that their unit is that close, like family. Kind of like our unit.'' He said, as they started off down the hall. The bell had rung, and if they walked slow they could make it just as the tardy bell was ringing. It wouldn't help them to be on time for class.

While the McQuaids were getting adjusted to their new school, Olivia was getting up to a horrible morning. It was actually gorgeous outside, but she didn't even want to get out of bed. She turned to look at the clock. It was noon. She could hardly believed that she had slept that late. She just lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She didn't care if she ever got out of this bed, she had buried a child the day before.

Elliot poked his head in the bedroom. He looked like hell himself. He was wearing his oldest pair of shorts and a very ratty NYPD shirt. He had been throwing himself into yard work to take his mind off things. He really wanted to go through Liz's room and start boxing things up, but he knew that Liv would have a fit. He just needed to do it to tell himself that she was really gone. He was checking on Liv. He made it a point to check on her every forty-five minutes. He was starting to really think that Maureen might be right to be worried about her. The babies were alright, they were downstairs with Maureen. If Olivia kept this up, he was going to have to have someone start coming in every day to watch them. He saw Olivia blinking. She was awake. ''Liv, are you awake? Is there anything that I can get for you?'' He asked.

Olivia barely had the energy to lift her head up to address her husband. ''No, I'm fine.'' She did have to go to the bathroom though. Reluctantly she got up. She was wearing an old football jersey of El's. He had played in high school. She adjusted her boy shorts where they had gotten all funky from her tossing and turning and headed to the master bathroom. Elliot had followed her. She peed and washed her hands. He was standing in her way back to the bed. ''El, you're going to have to move. I have a very busy day of lying in that bed.''

Elliot took one of her hands in his and caressed her cheek with the other. ''I'm very worried about you baby. I know we just buried our daughter yesterday, but when we got home, you tried to cut your wrists with one of the knives from the kitchen. That's not healthy. You have other kids to live for. And I need you. I can't live in this world without you. I need you to talk about it. Please, baby. I don't want to lose you too.''

Olivia looked to her bandaged wrists. She had declined going to the hospital, and Elliot had been able to stop the bleeding. She had immediately gone to the kitchen upon reaching the house. They hadn't been sure what she was doing, but Elliot had been watching her closely all the way home, after she had left the service.

_''Olivia, what are you doing? Baby, no!'' Elliot had ran into the kitchen, but she had already cut slits on both of her wrists. Blood was falling off them on the floor and falling down her arms. He grabbed a couple of towels from the drawer by the sink and wrapped them around both of her wrists. She was sobbing and trying to kick him away with her feet. _

_Maureen and the other kids had followed, and Mo made Kathleen take the little ones in the living room. She and Dickie stood in the doorway, not sure what to think. Casey hurried up behind them. She had gotten caught up parking the car in the garage. She put her hand over her mouth in surprise at what she saw. Maureen said, ''Daddy, we need to call an ambulance right now. Mom's probably going to need stitches. I warned you about this.''_

_Elliot watched the tears coursing down his wife's face as she finally stopped kicking him. She laid her head on his shoulder as he pressed as tightly as he could to the towels that were wrapped around her wrists. ''Not if I can stop the bleeding. We can just bandage her up real good. Liv, do you want me to try and fix this or do you want to go to the hospital?''_

_Maureen was reminded very strongly of __**Grey's Anatomy **__as her mother shook her head no to the hospital. Alex had had this problem with Rebecca/Ava, and she had had to get enrolled in the funny farm. She didn't want that to happen to her mother. ''Daddy, we may have to face the fact that Mom may need help that we can't give her. She just tried to slit her wrists. Liz was just murdered three days ago. She's already trying to kill herself. She needs help.'' She hated that this had affected her mother that badly. _

_Elliot checked the bleeding. He had managed to stop it. '''Case, would you go and get me some bandages so that I can fix her up? Her cuts aren't too deep, I don't think she'll need stitches.'' He really didn't think that she did, or he would have made her go. He was glad that she didn't, it would just tramatize her further. He kissed her on the forehead and Kathleen started trying to clean up the blood off the floor. ''Thanks Katie.'' He said, as she wiped a couple of tears off her face with her free hand. _

_Casey returned as quickly as she could with the bandages. She sat on the floor next to Elliot carefully pulled the towel off Olivia's left wrist and began to get out the bandages. Casey helped hold Olivia's wrist steady. She said, ''Liv, honey, I know that Liz was your daughter, but she wouldn't want you to kill yourself. She loved you. She talked about how much she loved you all the time. She loved her mother, but she was glad that you were here for her. She wouldn't want you to take your own life. And what about the other kids? They need their mom too.'' Casey didn't say that she needed Liv, too, it would sound selfish. But she did, and she knew that Elliot needed her, too. ''And your dad. You just found out that you had a father who loves you. Don''t take away any more years from him. He loves you and wants to be in your life.''_

_Olivia sat sniffling for a minute, and then said, ''I know all of that, Casey. I just wanted the pain to stop. I don't know if I can go on without Liz being here. This is not what was supposed to happen. She was only sixteen years old.'' She started to cry again, and would say no more. She just stared at Elliot bandaging up her hands. _

That had been really scary for Elliot. He could hardly think of what he would do if Olivia actually had managed to kill herself. He wasn't sure if Olivia had really been serious about it, since the cuts had been so shallow, but he couldn't take the chance that she wasn't. ''Honey, I want you to talk to me. Tell me how you're feeling right now. I want us to talk about this as much as possible so that we can move on. We have to move on. Life is going to without us if we don't. Lizzie would want us to.'' He said, as tears began to slip down Olivia's face.

Olivia took her free hand and wiped tears off her face. She knew that Liz would have wanted her to keep on living. She just felt all this pain. She wanted it to go away. She didn't want to do anything but mope in bed. She wasn't hungry, she wasn't thirsty, she wasn't anything but just numb. ''El, I don't want to do anything but just lay in bed. I don't feel anything. I just, I feel all this pain, and at the same time I'm numb. I know Lizzie would want me to live. I will. I just can't right now. I need to feel this. Be in the moment right now. I can't imagine life without her right now. I need some time to process this. All I ever wanted was a family, and now that I have it, one of those members was ripped away from me way before she should have been. Just leave me alone right now. I know you love me, and I love you too. I just need to be left alone.'' She touched his cheek and he stepped aside to let her pass. She crawled onto the bed and pulled the covers over her and just closed her eyes.

Elliot watched her, for a little while, until he heard steps coming up the stairs. Dickie stuck his head in the room. He saw his father standing in the doorway to the bathroom and walked over to him. ''What's up, Dick?'' Elliot asked quietly. If Liv had fallen back asleep, he didn't want to wake her.

Dick glanced at his mother before turning back to his father. ''Grandpa Don is here. He wants to see if Mom's OK. He says he wants to try and have the wake since we didn't yesterday. He's mad that he wasn't here until after the fact. He's really worried about her, Dad. I am too actually. It was really scary seeing her like that.''

Elliot said, ''I'll go down and talk to him. Your mom just wants to be alone right now.'' He took one last glance at her before he led his son out of the room. He left the door adjar, so if anything happened he'd hear it, and then headed down to meet his father in law in the living room. He accepted the hug Cragen had for him, and after he was done crying, he wiped his face. ''I'm sorry, I know you want to see Liv, but she's up in bed. She won't get up. She just wants to be left alone.''

Cragen nodded. ''I understand. Huang said he would come and talk to her if we'd like. He saw her leave to go to the car yesterday and he says that he's worried about how she's taking this. Frankly, so am I. She's my child, I just want to take away the pain. I wish I could feel all of this for her. It's driving me crazy that I can't do anything about her pain.''

Elliot nodded. ''I know. I hate it. And if George could come out to talk to her, that would be amazing. She might talk to him. She respects him a lot. He's helped her through a lot of things.'' He liked Huang. He was iffy with doctors, since he had gotten in trouble for sharing his thoughts and desires before, but he knew that Olivia really believed that they could help people.

Nicky and Alex made their way over to their grandfather from the floor in front of the television. They were crawling quite well. Eli was still sitting there, watching _Rugrats_ reruns. Scarlett was sleeping in the room she shared with the twins upstairs. They tugged on their grandfather's pant legs, and smiling, he picked them up. Nicky said, ''Gram Don.'' He was having no trouble saying little things so far. Alex wasn't either but he was quieter than his brother.

Cragen said, ''What are you watching, boys? Let's go check it out.'' He went to sit on the couch with them, and said to Eli, ''Can your grandpa watch with you Eli?'' He settled either twin next to him on the couch.

Elliot watched as his little boy smiled at his grandfather and told him yes. He started explaining the episode to him. Dickie, Liz, and Kathleen had all used to watch _Rugrats _when they were little. Maureen had a little, but she had really been too old for it. He wiped tears from his eyes as he leaned against the doorway. Maureen came up behind him from the kitchen. ''Look at that, Mo. They're so happy. They're so little and happy.'' It cheered him that they were able to hang out with Cragen. He knew that they loved it, although, they saw him at least three days out of the week. He came over for dinner quite a bit, and he had baby-sat a lot.

Maureen smiled a little. She knew that her siblings enjoyed their grandfather. ''Daddy, we need to do something about Mom. Have you checked on her recently?'' She was being diligent about her mother because she couldn't lose another parent. She didn't think she could handle it. She was barely handling losing her baby sister. She was so mad at Liz for getting herself in a position like that.

Elliot looked at his eldest. ''She's not good, but she doesn't seem to be planning another suicide attempt. Your grandfather suggested having George Huang out to talk to Olivia. He said Huang would be more than happy to. Why don't you look into fixing some lunch? Your aunt Casey will be calling in a little bit on her lunch break to check up on everybody.''

Maureen nodded. ''Grandpa said something about having the wake tonight. I think we should. Mom doesn't have to come down for it if she really doesn't want to, but I think it could be good for everybody else. Nobody from Mom's side of the family will come most likely, you know they don't really care for you anymore, but we could get Aunt Alex, Uncle Munch, Uncle Fin, maybe ask Amanda if she could come.'' She stopped speaking at the look on her father's face. ''Daddy, I know you need to blame her for what happened, but she loved Lizzie. She should be allowed to come if she wants.''

Dick heard this from the kitchen and came to join them. ''I agree with her, Dad. She really did love Lizzie. She may feel too uncomfortable coming, but if we're going to have the wake we need to let her know.''

Elliot sighed. He couldn't fight two of them, especially since he knew that Liv would want her there. ''OK, fine. When your Aunt Casey calls I'll let you talk to her, you guys can figure out who's bringing what.'' He shook his head and headed outside. Casey was going to call his cell instead of the house phone. She knew that he was planning on being outside that day.

Hanson and Penhall headed off to the cafeteria for lunch. Hanson had checked out Brandon and Drydon, so he knew what they looked like. He scanned the cafeteria, and saw them sitting at the back. He nodded to Doug. ''After we get our food, that's where we need to go.'' He felt a vibration in his pocket, and he pulled his phone out as they headed to get in line. It was a text from Amanda, asking him why he and Doug weren't in school. He texted back. _Mom n Dad moved us. Said ur school was 2 dangerous._ He put his phone away and whispered to Doug, ''Amanda just texted me, asking me why we weren't in school.''

Doug wasn't surprised. They had been there when Liz was shot. She was reaching out to them. ''I bet it's hard for her right now. What did she say?'' He asked, as they started filling up their trays.

Tom replied, ''She asked why we weren't in school. I told her that our parents pulled us out because it was too dangerous for us to be there.'' They finished getting their food and headed over to Drydon and Brandon's table. There were a couple of girls sitting there with them. Tom hoped that one of these guys was the one that murdered Liz. They really didn't have any suspects, and he really wanted to get justice for her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

The next day, Elliot awoke to a bright and sunny morning. It totally didn't reflect what he felt at all. Olivia was still buried beneath the covers, but he could feel one of her hands laying on one of his. They had fallen asleep the night before holding hands. He carefully slid out of bed, yanking his boxers on. He could already feel them starting to slip a little. He had lost some weight in the past few days, he could tell. He hadn't really been eating much. Even at the wake the night before. It had been a good thing to do. Amanda had come, and had spent the night glued to Dick's side. She hadn't felt comfortable with Liv, since Elliot had been at her side most of the night, trying to get her to eat something. All she would do was sit at the kitchen table and stare into space.

Elliot headed downstairs. He wanted to call George and make sure that he was still coming out to see Olivia. He got to the kitchen, found Casey there, finishing up her breakfast. ''Morning, Casey. How'd you sleep?'' He got down a coffee cup from the cupboard.

Casey shrugged. ''Not well. I tossed and turned a lot. Huang called while you were still sleeping. He says he wants you to call him back. He wants to know if you still want him to come out and talk to Olivia. I think that that's a really good idea. She likes Huang, and she respects him.''

Elliot nodded. ''I know. I thought it was too.'' He picked up the house phone to call Huang back. He actually had Huang's number memorized from all the times he'd had to call him for cases, it was shocking to him. When Huang picked up, he said, ''George, it's Elliot. Casey told me you called. You still going to be able to make it out here to see Liv?''

Huang was happy that he had called him back. ''Of course, Elliot. I have reserved some time this afternoon. I will be free to come out around three. Is that alright with you? I'm glad that today is Saturday, I will be able to talk as long as Liv needs me to.''

Elliot thought for a minute. ''That sounds good. I'll make sure she's ready. She's been lying in bed most of the day these past few days.'' He wondered how difficult that would be, getting Livvy up. She wasn't going to readily agree to seeing George, even though he knew that she would talk to him once he got her to.

George said, ''Has she eaten anything at all? Drank anything? She's not taking to the bottle, is she?'' He was very concerned about this. It sounded as if Liv was worse off than he thought.

Elliot replied, ''No, she hasn't touched anything at all. I've been trying to get her to eat for awhile now. We had the wake yesterday and she ate nothing the entire time. I'm sure she's lost a couple of pounds due to stress and lack of food.''

He talked to Huang a bit more, and George seemed concerned about Olivia as he hung up. Elliot turned to Casey. ''He's coming this afternoon, around three. He's sounding concerned about her, I don't like the sound of that.'' He said, ''I'm going to go check on her, see if she's awake or still sleeping.''

When he got upstairs, Liv had turned over, yawning and stretching. She sat up at the sight of him coming into the room. Her face looked thinner, and she looked as if she'd lost a little of the baby weight already, as he suspected. It's a good thing she wasn't breastfeeding Scarlett. He walked over to the bed and sat down, moving a lock of hair out of her eyes. She looked tired. She said, ''Hi, baby.''

Elliot said, ''I'm going to need you to shower and get dressed, baby.'' He paused before he said what he needed to say next at her look of protest. ''Huang is coming by the house to talk to you today about your feelings. I'm worried about you. I want you to get better. You're not looking healthy, sweetie.''

Olivia sighed and slid out of bed. El's boxer shorts were starting to slip off her waist, and she wore his jersey still. She had to pee again. She walked to the bathroom and stared at herself. Her husband looked on concerned from the bed. She did look horrible. Her hair was greasy from not being washed, and she had deep circles under her eyes. She turned to go to the bathroom. When she was finished, she turned to talk to him as she washed her hands. ''I guess it can't hurt anything.'' She said.

Elliot looked shocked. He had expected more of a fight. ''OK, awesome, baby! You should shower, he's not coming until this afternoon, but I want you to start getting ready, so you can feel a little normal, and I'll lay you out something to wear on the bed, OK, sweetheart?'' He went to give her a kiss.

Olivia felt herself actually kissing back, and was pleased. She watched as he headed out into the bedroom to start laying out something. She took off her clothes and climbed into the shower. She let the hot water wash over her, and she actually felt a little better. After about a half an hour, she climbed out and wrapped herself in a towel. She went into the bedroom, smiling at what Elliot had laid out. He'd put out her best pair of maternity jeans and his other football jersey. He knew she'd want to be comfortable.

She got some underwear out and a bra. She looked at the jeans, and then looked at herself in the mirror. The jeans might be too big. She hadn't gained that much weight while she'd been pregnant, and she was willing to bet that she had lost at least ten pounds in the past few days. She hadn't eaten anything at all. She took the jeans and tried to pull them on. They immediately fell to the floor. She went rummaging through the dresser, looking for the jeans she wore when she was just starting to show. She finally found them and slipped them on. They fit better. Then she slipped the jersey on over her head.

After she had brushed her hair out and headed downstairs. Casey was still sitting at the table, sipping coffee and reading the paper. She looked up as Olivia entered the room. ''Hey, Liv. You're looking like you feel a little better this morning.'' Casey said, smiling at her best friend.

Olivia smiled in return for a second. It felt odd. She went to get herself a cup of coffee. She opened the door, and had a flash of the memory of Liz's coffee cup sitting there next to hers on the shelf. She managed to keep tears off her face as she remembered Elliot tossing it in the trash. She took a deep breath and said, ''So where's Elliot?''

Casey said, ''He went out to do some more yardwork. The twins are taking their mid morning nap, and Eli is in the living room watching cartoons. Dickie went to school for a couple of hours.'' She got herself some more coffee.

They heard Elliot's loud voice from the open window. He was arguing with Callie. ''OK, Callie, now we have an issue. My family is trying to move on from our loss. Please don't call me any more just now. I need to be here with them, work this out. If you need to talk about work, please just call Munch, OK? I really want to like you as a friend and be able to work with you but you're going to have to work with me halfway, OK?'' That was all they heard.

Casey looked at Olivia in surprise. ''Wow. I never thought that he was going to address that problem. I am shocked beyond belief.'' She was about to say more when they heard the screen door bang shut as Elliot came into the house.

Elliot smiled in appreciation at seeing Olivia in clothes, and freshly showered and the look of pain dulled on her face. He then allowed himself to be annoyed again. ''OK, so, Callie called me to ask me at first, how the family was, and if she could do anything. Then she wanted to know if I was coming back to work soon, there was some questions that she had. I've been feeling sorry for her, 'cause I know that there isn't anything she can do about having feelings for me, but I just had to let her have it.''

Olivia didn't blame him at all. She was tiring of Callie's repeated attempts to involve herself in Elliot's life more than he wanted her to be. It was getting to be something of an annoyance. She did feel sorry for the girl, however. ''She'll survive, baby, you did the right thing.''

Later that afternoon, right before Huang was supposed to arrive, the doorbell rang. Olivia, assuming it was George, got up to get it. Who she found instead was Hanson and Penhall. She asked, ''Hello, boys, what are you doing here?'' She wasn't upset to see them, she wasn't angry at them a bit. She thought they were nice boys.

Tom, who looked a lot cooler than she had ever seen him in those ridiculous shorts that hit his calves and a blue wife beater, with a light hoodie, said, ''We just left summer school. Can we come in and talk a minute?'' He asked.

Doug was dressed in jeans that nearly hung off his ass altogether, and a long red tee shirt that hung to his knees. He had a Mets cap sitting backward on his head, and brown curls sticking out from under the bill. He said, ''We want to talk to you about the case, Mrs. Stabler. It will only take a few minutes, we have to get back to Jump Street Chapel and talk to our captain.''

Olivia stepped back to let them in. She closed the door softly and said, ''Do you want to come in the kitchen? We can sit down and I can get you coffee or something you'd like to drink. We've got plenty left over from the wake yesterday.'' She was able to say all of that without breaking down. This was progress.

Tom and Doug shared a look, and agreed to go with her into the kitchen. She got them bottles of water at their decline of tea. She formally introduced them to Casey, who was back in the kitchen, tending to Eli, who had been hungry. She was making him a peanut butter sandwhich. Tom said, ''We think we may have it narrowed down to who may have killed Liz.'' He felt there was no need to beat around the bush. He knew that they would want to know.

Olivia wondered if she should fetch Elliot. He had taken a shower, and then a nap, so he could sit with her while she talked with George, if she so desired. She decided that she should, he would want to know this. She said, ''Hold on, boys, I'll be right back.'' She turned and hurried up the stairs to their bedroom.

Elliot had pulled the old sheets off the bed and changed them. He was laying on his back, wearing old boxers and nothing else. He had jeans and a black polo sitting on the chair beside Liv's vanity. She crept up to him and kissed him on the cheek. He stirred fitfully and opened his baby blues. ''Hey, baby.'' He said sleepily, sounding so much like Eli that she smiled.

Olivia said, ''It's time to get dressed and come on downstairs, baby. Tom and Doug are here to tell us something about the case, and George will be here soon.'' She loved it when he woke up from sleeping like that. He was so adorable.

With reluctance, he got up and put on his clothes. He then took her hand and they headed back downstairs. To their surprise, Casey was having a loud discussion about the Mets with Doug while Tom and Eli looked on in amusement. Casey was hollering, ''You know, it's a rebuilding year!'' And Doug was answering, ''Rebuilding year my a...I mean, tush.'' As he realized Eli sat there.

At Elliot and Olivia's arrival, the arguement ended, but Casey gave him a 'this is not over' look as Elliot sat down in one of the chairs, pulling Olivia onto his lap. He wanted her close for whatever they had to say. Elliot said, ''So you have news about Liz's killer?''

Tom nodded. ''We believe it's two boys at one of Liz's rival schools. If they didn't do it, they know who did. Brandon Langton and Drydon Scott. They are the school's biggest drug leaders, and they make the McQuaid brothers look so weak in comparison. We've really had to up our game. We're going to get them, though. They're already starting to trust us.''

That's when George arrived, ending their powwow.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Olivia, Elliot, and George were sitting in the family room, and Casey had herded all the kids upstairs, making sure that they had privacy. Olivia was sitting on the couch next to Elliot, sitting so close she might as well have been on his lap. He had one arm around her tightly and the other was holding her hand, rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of her hand. She was sniffling, and George had pulled out a notepad to take notes. Olivia was telling him how she had felt a little better today, the shower and getting dressed had helped her to start feeling more like herself. ''I haven't felt this good since Lizzie was taken from us. Then I started to feel guilty because I started to feel so good.'' She said, running her free hand through her long dark brown hair.

George made a notation on his pad. He then looked up at her. ''Olivia, you shouldn't feel guilty because you are starting to feel more like yourself. That is not healthy. It's normal for people to start moving on after you lose someone you love, even if you lose a child.'' He hoped that this session would help Olivia feel better.

Olivia was glad that Elliot was here with her, she may not have been able to get through this without him. She was doing alright, and she knew it was because he was sitting next to her and holding on so tightly to her. She said, ''I haven't cried once today, and I have been able to talk about what happened without breaking down. I think I might be able to actually continue to get out of bed and take care of my other children.'' She surprised herself, she hadn't been expecting to say that.

George was glad that she was beginning to feel that much better. ''That's good, Olivia. You should try every day, especially since you were able to today. Every day will get easier, time is the only thing that will make the pain go away. Is there anything else you would like to share with me?'' He asked.

Olivia thought for a moment, and then turned to Elliot. ''Is there anything you have to add?'' She asked him. She knew that he was the one who had called George out to talk to her, she thought he might have something that he had to ask George about her. It didn't bother her, she knew Elliot was just doing his job as her husband, and taking care of her.

Elliot shook his head. ''No, I'm OK. George, do you mind scheduling a followup visit for about a month from now? We can cancel it if Liv doesn't end up needing it.'' He was taking precautions. He didn't want Liv to get any worse, and he thought that the meeting with George had done some good.

George agreed, and he and Elliot left the room to make the arrangements. Olivia continued to sit on the couch, starting to feel something in her stomach. It was familiar, she hadn't felt it in awhile, but she was starting to recognize it. She wanted to have sex with Elliot. She didn't know where it had come from, but she was totally going to go with the flow. She waited to see if Elliot joined her in the family room again. If he didn't, she'd go find him.

She got her wish a couple of minutes later. Elliot came back into the room and sat down beside her on the couch, and gave her a kiss. ''Well, that was productive, wasn't it?'' He asked, surprised when she jumped him, climbing on his lap and kissing him like crazy.

Elliot was shocked but went with it. He'd have to be crazy not to, it was their first sexual experience for quite awhile. He kissed her back while she worked with his jeans, trying to get them unbuttoned. He ran his hand up her shirt, and went to her bra. He began working to unhook it. It took a matter of minutes. He slipped the cups off her breasts and slid his large hand over the right one. Olivia stopped the kissing and pulled off both of their shirts, and slipped her bra off her arms, before capturing his mouth with hers again.

Elliot began fiddling with Olivia's jeans as she began kissing his neck, and the feel of her breasts against his chest sent a surge of bloodflow to his member between his legs and he groaned. She smiled and took a breath of air so he could get her jeans down her hips. He then slid off her panties, too, and they hurriedly got his jeans off and then made short work of his boxers, also. Now there was nothing left standing in their way. Elliot laid back on the couch and pulled Olivia on top of him. They both carefully guided him into her, and they began to rock. Olivia leaned down to kiss him, and then she threw her head back in ecstasy, as their hips began to rock faster and faster. A couple of minutes later and they both came with muffled screams. They didn't want to attract kid attention. Elliot watched as Olivia eased off of him and started getting dressed. He said, ''So, not that that wasn't amazing, but where did the desire to have sex come from?'' He asked.

Olivia turned to him, looking adorable in just his jersey and clutching his jeans in the other hand. She started to slip them on, and shrugged her shoulders. ''I don't know, but I'm glad it came over me all of a sudden, it was something I really wanted to do.'' She smiled at him and then gave him another kiss. ''I'm so hungry. I'm going to go get something to eat.'' She headed into the kitchen, Elliot watching her go.

At the 1-6, Callie Curtis was looking at her phone, sighing. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a braid, and she looked upset. She was still reeling from her talk with Elliot. She was thinking that she might have to transfer from SVU, she wasn't sure that they could continue to work together, it was getting uncomfortable for Elliot. She didn't blame him, though, she had made an ass of herself. Ace walked up to her desk. ''What's up, Ace?'' She asked.

Ace ran a hand through his brown hair, his green eyes sparkling. ''So what's up, Curtis? You've been moping since you got off the phone with the Captain.'' He thought she was being an idiot, and was about to tell her so. She had to get over this Elliot crush, it was going to end all kinds of badly. Elliot was so in love with Olivia he couldn't see any other women, and Callie had to be stupid if she thought she had a snowball's chance in hell to get her hands on him.

Callie's cool blue eyes met his, and she knew she had to tell him the truth. She and Ace had been best friends before they'd gotten together, and that's why their friendship had stood the test of their breakup. She sighed. ''Elliot let me have it because I called to see how things were going.'' She said, waiting for the onslaught of Ace's words of admontion. She knew they were coming. She'd known him too long.

Ace sighed and sat down beside her at her desk. ''Cal, I've known you for a long time, me and Fitz both have. We went through the academy together. I know you aren't going to want to hear what I have to say, but you've got to hear it. You have to move on from Elliot. He is never going to want to be with you. I know you don't want to even consider the possibilty of moving on, but you have to. If you can't, then you might need to consider leaving SVU. I know you don't want to do that, either, leave Fin and Munch, and Casey, and me and Fitz, but it's affecting your work relationships now. That's not good.'' He said.

Before Callie could reply, Alex came into the precinct. She was looking a little upset about something. Callie stood up as Alex headed over to her desk. Callie asked, ''What's the matter, Alex? You look upset.'' She looked at Ace as he touched her arm and went over to get some coffee, to let them talk.

Alex placed her briefcase on the chair Ace had vacated. She said, ''I got asked out on a date. I'm very nervous, because I accepted. It's time to move on from Olivia, nine years has been long enough being in love with her.'' She had her longer style swept off her neck with a clip.

Callie smiled. She was glad her friend had finally been asked out. She could start being happy now. ''What's she like? Where did you meet her?'' She asked, giving Alex's shoulder a congratulory squeeze.

Alex smiled now. She was starting to feel a little bit better about the prospect now that she had someone to talk to about it. She said, ''I met her at the coffee shop that I frequent. She and I have been getting coffee together every morning for about a month or so. I had to sit with her one morning when it was really busy and we started being friends after that. She told me that she had started to get this vibe from me and she decided to test it out. I'm glad she did, she's really very hot. She's my heighth, with long brown hair and green eyes. She is pretty slender, and she is a real estate broker on Long Island. She lives here in Manhattan, though. She is pretty nice. She's very fem, too.''

Callie was happy for her. She said, ''Well, totally awesome, Alex. Is she your first date with a female? Oooh, we've got to take you shopping for something to wear! You've got to knock her socks off!''' She said, giving Alex a hug.

Fin stepped into the squadroom, his fiancee not far behind him. ''John, baby, I told you, you can have whatever you want for the food at the reception.'' He said, smiling at the girls. ''Hey, girls, how's it hanging?'' He turned to Callie. ''Do you mind wearing a tux at the ceremony? We can make sure you've got a pretty tie and vest if you want.''

Callie shook her head. ''Of course not, Toot. And what's this I hear about a dispute over the food for the reception?'' She asked, a slight teasing tone in her voice. She was so happy for the two of them she could burst. She was very proud to be a groomsperson.

Fin said, ''Well, John wants chicken, and he thinks that I care what food we have. I don't, I care more about the colors and the theme. I have that handled, so he gets to plan the food. I told him he can plan his groomspeople's outfits, too, as long as it fits in with the colors I've got picked out.'' He pulled some color swatches out of his pockets. ''See, I think I'm going with ivory and navy blue.'' He added.

Callie took a look. ''Those are really pretty, Toot. Do you have flowers picked out?'' She asked, forgetting all about Alex's date, however, Alex had forgotten, too, as she too, got involved in the conversation.

Meanwhile, Tom Hanson and Doug Penhall were at their favorite hangout with Judy Hoffs and Harry Ioki. They all had a table, and a plate of chicken wings sat atop it. Booker was going to be joining them in a little bit. Judy was saying, ''So, are you guys going to be coming to our housewarming?'' She and Doug had finally found a place and had moved in quickly. Doug still hadn't found a buyer yet, but the place they'd managed to get had been a steal.

Tom was pouring more beer from the pitcher into his glass. ''Yes, of course, Jude. Has anyone heard from Booker, why's he late?'' It had taken awhile for him to be friends with Booker. When he had first come to Jump Street, they had butted heads a lot.

Judy nodded. ''He was checking out your suspects for you, seeing if they had any other records of anyone else they had dealings with ending up dead. I take it you're going to be letting the family know?'' She knew that they were going to continue letting the family know, even though they weren't supposed to. They were doing so because of Elliot and Olivia being cops.

Doug replied, ''Yeah, we went out there today after our Saturday detention. So, Jude, how's your case coming along?'' They only talked about work with their friends, they managed to avoid it when they were alone together. It was less stress on their relationship that way.

Judy took a sip of her beer and absentmindedly ran her hand through Doug's hair as she replied. ''It's pretty cut and dry, we've almost got the kid nailed down. He's been selling a lot of drugs, hasn't he, Harry?'' She asked.

Harry nodded and started telling them about it as Tom's attention began to wan. He was thinking about how life was so short. He still felt bad that they hadn't been able to do anything for Liz, and that she had lost her life so horribly. He hated it when they lost the young ones. Especially since she was from such a good family. He knew that they had loved Liz so much. They had heard from Amanda again that day, and they were supposed to go grab breakfast with her the next morning. He knew she was still having a hard time dealing with Liz's death, and she was reaching out because they'd been there, too. Tom was glad to help her, though, Amanda was really a good kid, too.

In an apartment in Manhattan, Merritt Rook was sitting in a chair, looking out over the city. He was thinking about his plan. He had ordered the death of Elizabeth Stabler, and it had worked out amazingly well. It looked as if they weren't ever going to be able to connect it to him, they were thinking it was a drug related homicide. It was amazing how lucky he was. Now he had to put the next part of his plan in motion...


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The next morning dawned bright and early. Olivia was buried underneath Elliot's arm, sleeping deeply. She groaned as she felt the sun hit her face. Elliot, too, was knocked out. She lifted her head, groaning again. ''So early for the sun to be up.'' There had been another marathon sex session that night. It had made her feel loads better. She pulled herself up out of bed and got some clothes out. After she ate breakfast she was going to shower. She liked how much better she had felt the day before, and she was all for a repeat of that.

When she got downstairs, Casey was in the kitchen, making coffee. ''Morning, Liv. Glad to see you got up out of bed this morning. So, how was last night? I found your panties right outside your bedroom door.'' Casey said, a slightly teasing tone in her voice.

Olivia blushed to the roots of her brown hair. She went to get something out to fix for breakfast. She got out some eggs, wondering if any of the kids were going to want some, too. She turned to Casey. ''Have you seen any of the older kids this morning?''

Casey shook her head. ''No, I haven't. Maureen said she was going to go back to her own apartment if we didn't need her, and Kathleen said she needs to get back to school, but we can call her if we need her.'' She added, ''And Dickie is still in his bedroom, I'm assuming.'' She said, ''He doing any better that you've noticed? He's been really quiet.''

Olivia had noticed, even in her really depressed state, he had stopped by her and El's bedroom every day to check on her. She knew he was taking this hard, too, it had been his twin sister that was murdered. She said, ''I haven't asked him, Casey. He seemed a little better yesterday.''

Elliot came into the kitchen, looking exhausted. He pointed a finger at his wife. ''You left the bed, Olivia. When I woke up there wasn't a beautiful and desirable woman lying next to me.'' He said, giving her a smile as he went to put his arms around her and give her a hug.

Olivia hugged tightly back. She wouldn't have been able to make it through this without him, he was her rock. She ran her hand through his hair and kissed his cheek. ''El, I want to tell you something.'' She said, as they parted, but El kept his arms tightly around her. She looked into his blue eyes. ''I want to tell you that I love you so very much. I never could have done this without you, and I won't be able to continue to make it through this without you. You are my rock. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone, except maybe the kids. I am so grateful for you.'' She kissed him as passionately as she could.

Elliot tried to keep tears from falling down his face. He said, ''Oh, Liv, I love you, too. I will never make it through this without you.'' He said, giving her a kiss on the mouth.

Casey said, ''Aw, that was just so sweet. And on that note, I have to get to work. I don't want to be late I've got a million cases to go over. So see you guys later. I most likely won't be home for dinner.'' She blew them both a kiss and headed out the door.

Elliot kissed Olivia one last time and went to get some coffee. ''So, do you think you'll be alright if I head back to work today? I'm ready to bury myself in it and I know John will be happy to give me back my job. He hates being in charge. There's no danger of John ever trying to take my place.'' He smiled softly as he got out a coffee cup.

Olivia began to mix up the eggs, to make scrambled, as Dickie came down, carrying Eli. He placed his brother in the high chair. Olivia smiled at him. ''Morning, Dick. Do you want some eggs?'' She asked.

Dickie looked up in surprise at her. ''Morning, Mom. I didn't...I'm glad you're up.'' He said, fighting back tears. He was very glad that his mother was feeling better. He had hated to see her like that.

The doorbell began ringing, and Dickie went to get it as they were joined by Maureen and the twins. She placed them in their high chairs and went to her mother, to kiss her cheek. ''I would have brought Scarlett, Mom, but she was still sleeping. So, I am off to my own apartment. If you need anything, let me know.'' She kissed both of her parents and her baby brothers and headed off out the door.  
Dickie returned to the kitchen, bringing Fin with him. ''Mom, Fin has some wedding planning problems that he wants to get your opinion on.'' He said, as he grabbed a coffee cup to get some coffee.

Fin smiled at the sight of Olivia standing and cooking in the kitchen. Olivia was glad that she had grabbed a robe to wear after she had gotten up. He kissed her cheek and took the coffee cup that Elliot handed him. ''So, John and I are seeing the florist today, and I can't really decide on the flowers I want. I am stuck between lilies, roses, and daffodils.'' He pulled out some pictures of the arrangements they were allowed to choose from. ''I need you to pick out one you like, I need an opinion.''

As Olivia was staring at Fin's flower arrangements, she was taken back to her own wedding day. It had been beautiful.

_It was a beautiful day. It was sunny and gorgeous. It had been on September 14th. She had picked out a beautiful church not far from their new house. Casey wore the most beautiful blue dress. It was simple and elegant, with elbow length sleeves and it was made of velvet. It had a full skirt and a simple bodice. Lizzie had worn a similar dress in a different color. Olivia had picked a sky blue and lilac for her colors. She wore a beautiful ivory dress, that she had gotten at a vintage wedding shop. It was from the forties, and she had worn a little hat with it, that her veil had been attached to. _

_Fin, who had been the best man, had a lilac tie with his tux, and the other best man, Munch, had a sky blue tie. Elliot wore neither, just a simple black and white tux. The church had been full of purple peonies, and Cragen had given her away. It was find of bittersweet and ironic now, since they now knew he was her father. George Huang had done them a favor and had gotten annointed on the internet and he was able to officiate. Melinda was their photographer. Olivia had wanted to include as many of their friends as possible. She thought it was a little upsetting that Brian had been in attendance, now they knew what he had been planning. _

Olivia was snapped back to reality when Fin snapped his fingers at her. She smiled at him, at how gay he had looked doing that. He usually wasn't that sterotypical. She said, ''I'm sorry, Fin, it just got me to thinking about my own wedding. It was just beautiful. You will want yours to be as awesome.'' She took a better look at the flowers he'd held out. ''I say use lilies. They're the prettiest.'' She said.

Fin said, ''Thanks, Livvy, I appreciate the opinion.'' He kissed her cheek and sat down at the kitchen table. ''So, when are you coming back to work, El? John's getting awful tired of doing your job. He completely hates it.'' He added, taking a sip of the coffee he had poured in his cup.

Elliot said, ''Good, because I'm coming back today. I am ready, and I know that John's getting tired of doing it. I'm sure he's been complaining about it every chance he gets.'' He knew that John loved them, and he had loved Lizzie, but he was sure to be complaining a lot about being in charge. He absolutely hated that part of the job.

Fin chuckled. ''Yes, it's been very annoying. He loves you guys, and he loved Lizzie with all of his heart, but he really hates working that captain's position. He'll be glad to know you'll be back. You guys heard from Jump Street?'' He asked, hoping that that wouldn't drag the mood down too much.

Olivia and Elliot shared a look. Olivia was all for telling him, Fin was family. She and Elliot decided they would, without a word. She said, ''Yeah, yesterday. Hanson says they've got a couple of suspects in mind. They're trying to get involved with their drug ring, so they can get closer to them. It will take awhile, but I think they'll get Lizzie's killer and or killers, and put them away. I'm not worried about the trial, Alex is going to catch that.'' She said.

Fin nodded. ''Oh, did Alex tell you? She finally got herself a date.'' He knew that Alex hadn't told them yet about her orientation, but he knew she would now that she had a date with this woman. Her name was Rosie. He said, ''She's really excited about it. She's going to be telling you about it today.'' He said.

Olivia was happy for Alex. She had been starting to wonder if maybe Alex batted for the other team. Not that that was a bad thing, it wasn't. It was just, she wanted Alex to be happy. And even if she was a lesbian, she hadn't had any dates with any females, either. They'd only known her to date Trevor Langan, and that had been awhile ago. She said, ''That's good. I was starting to wonder if Alex was batting for the other team.'' She knew Fin would keep that to himself, and she and Elliot had discussed it before.

Fin froze for a minute, and only Elliot caught it, Olivia had gone back to the eggs. His eyes got a little wide as he realized that Elliot had caught him. He gave Elliot a pleading look, and Elliot smiled at him, liking the position his best friend was in. Fin said, ''Um, yeah, I'll let Alex tell you about it. Smells good, Livvy, you got some for your big brother?'' He asked, trying desperately to change the subject. He hoped that Olivia didn't know about Alex's feelings for her. That wouldn't be good, Alex would be mortified.

Elliot laughed to himself as Olivia dished out the eggs, handing Fin a plateful, and some toast. He knew it. He had suspected for years that Alex was into Olivia. He was glad that she had moved on, though. He wanted her to be happy. If she was still mooning over Liv, that wasn't going to be possible. He was glad that Olivia hadn't caught Fin's look, she would have known that Alex was a lesbian, too. He knew that Alex was going to want to tell them herself, especially Liv. She would want to make sure that Liv knew she was happy. He said, ''OK, guys, I'm going to let you have a nice breakfast, I'm going to go get ready for work. Have fun with your brother, Livvy.'' He gave her a kiss and gave a smile to a relieved looking Fin as he left the kitchen, chuckling.

Callie was just arriving at the precinct, coffee in hand. She had been informed that Elliot was coming back to work that day, and she was ready to put things behind them. She was finally ready to move on from Elliot. Her talk with Ace yesterday had really been an eye opener. She was tired of mooning over someone who didn't want her. She knew his main objective behind that talk was to get her to take him back, but she wasn't going to do that. She was going to get herself someone new. She was feeling pretty good this morning.

When she entered the squadroom, only Munch was there. He was leaving Elliot's office, looking happy. He said, ''Morning, Curtis. Elliot's coming back today, I get to just go back to my desk.'' He looked over the moon.

Callie nodded. ''I know, your fiancee told me. He just texted me. I'm going to make sure that El knows I'm moving on today. I am ready to stop being crazy in love with him and just move on. It is helping no one. I need to make our working relationship better.'' She said.

Munch thought that was a sound plan. ''I think that's a good idea, Callie. He is married, and you never had a shot anyway.'' He smiled and kissed her forehead. ''But I do love you. You're a good girl. You'll find you a nice Jewish boy, of course, I'm biased.'' He said, making her laugh.

''Uncle Munch, I'm only half Jewish on my mother's side. None of the Jewish boys I went to school with were attractive at all. Although, I do like Adam Sandler.'' She said, chuckling.

Munch laughed, too. ''Yeah, another married guy.'' He said, making them both crack up, confusing Ace and Fitz as they were both arriving at the precinct.

Ace said, ''So, Callie, did you think about what I said?'' He hoped she had, it was only going to be better for her in the long run, if she got over Elliot and started to try and find someone new. However, if she decided to get back together with him, that wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

Callie smirked at him, she knew why he was asking. ''Yes, Ackerely, I have. I am going to make sure that Elliot knows I am done pandering for his attention. It's time for someone new.'' She said, taking a little satisfaction at his crestfallen face.

Fitz looked a little upset about something, and Callie said so. He nodded, tears starting to fill his eyes. ''Daphne and I have broken off our engagement.'' He said, dropping his head into his hands.

Callie hurried forward, knowing how broken up he was going to be. He had really loved Daphne. They had been together for three years. ''Oh, Fitz, I'm so sorry.'' She said, holding him close as he cried on her shoulder. It was lucky no one was really there yet. He was pretty broken up. It was terrible.

Ace said, ''I'm sorry, man, do you want to talk about why?'' He knew this was going to be very hard on Fitz, he and Daphne had been inseperable since they got together. She had grown up with them, too, and she and Fitz had been friends for years before they had gotten together. No one had been surprised at the hookup, and they had all thought they'd be together forever. This was going to be shocking to all of their friends.

Fitz leaned his head up from Callie's shoulder but left himself in her arms, it felt nice to be comforted. ''Yeah, I do. She was chearting on me. With Damascus, the long lost brother that I never knew I had. He turned up a few months ago I guess, and I wasn't home because I was working. Jason was out with some friends. Daphne was the only one there. She let him in, and they got to talking. He never came back to introduce himself to me, because that night they got drunk and slept together. He was afraid that I wouldn't want anything to do with him once I found out.''

Ace was shocked. Fitz's parents had been together a long time before they had passed away. He could hardly believe that one of them had cheated. ''Are you serious, Dalton? I just, I can't believe this.'' He ran his hand through his hair. He only called Fitz by his given name when he was really upset.

Fitz nodded. ''Yeah, Dad was the one who made that faux paux. She was a waitress that he met at a diner when he was on lunch one day from work. He and Ma had been fighting, and he thought he would give them something to really fight about and had himself a waitress.'' He said this all matter of factly, but both Callie and Fitz knew he was taking it hard.

Before any of them could say anything else, Tom Hanson and Doug Penhall showed up in the office. It was a Sunday, they wouldn't be needed at the school that day. None of the them but Munch even really knew who they were, since their cover was supposed to still be intact. Munch, knowing this, said, ''Can I help you, boys?''

Doug spoke first. ''Yes, sir, we're just looking for Captain Stabler, someone told us this was his precinct.'' They had some news that they wanted to give Elliot and Olivia as soon as possible. It was really important.

Munch said, ''He's not here right now, but he should be here later on this morning, why don't I set you up with something to drink and a room to wait in?'' He knew that that wasn't going to help them right that minute, but it was all he could give them.

Doug and Tom agreed to this and headed over to get the coffee with Munch. Then they were safely ensconced in the interview room next to Elliot's office. Doug was tired, and drank his coffee. Tom was reflective, and just wanted to talk to Elliot. It was something he wanted to get off his chest.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Elliot was sitting in his office, still a little surprised about what Doug and Tom had had to tell him. They had informed him that the boys that they had thought killed Lizzie were innocent. It was a hit. There had been a hit ordered on his daughter. He was very surprised. He had asked them if they had managed to find out who was behind it, and they told him that they had no idea. Elliot figured he'd better call Olivia and let her know. He was wondering if it was still tied to Lizzie's drug operation or if it had something to do with himself or his wife. They were cops, and they had put a lot of people away for different things.

When Olivia answered the phone, it was loud. He could hear one of the kids making loud jabbering noises really close to the phone, so he figured she must be holding one. She said, ''Stabler residence.''

Elliot said, ''Livvy, baby, it's me. I want to give you some news that Hanson and Penhall just gave me.'' He leaned back in his chair, still stymied as to who would have ordered his daughter killed, and not any of their other children. Especially if it was related to himself or Olivia. That made no sense.

Olivia replied, ''Hold on, baby, I need to put Scarlett in her crib real quick. She just ate and needs a nap.'' She put down the phone for a second and placed her daughter in the crib. She loved her so much. She was hopefully the last child, though, they didn't really need any more and she was getting older. She was glad that she had been able to have the ones she did, have, however, she was really happy.

Elliot heard her voice again, and knew it was safe to talk. ''Livvy, someone ordered that Lizzie be murdered. She had a hit on her, and Tom and Doug say it wasn't the boys that they thought it was. They're investigating whether it was related to her drug business or not. They're starting to think it didn't. Their captain is having them yanked from the school they're in and they are checking out one of the other rival schools.''

Olivia was shocked. ''Really? It most likely wasn't drug related?'' She was surprised. They had been so sure that that's what had happened that they hadn't even thought it might be anything else.

Her husband replied, ''Yeah, I was wondering if maybe it has something to do with either one of us. We've put a lot of people behind bars, it might be someone who's a little disgruntled that we put away someone in their family. It's just something to think about. We have to consider that possibility.''

Olivia headed out of Scarlett's room and checked on the boys, who were playing in their room. Eli sometimes liked to be mean to his younger brothers and take their toys. They all seemed to be playing OK right now, however. She then walked down to the kitchen, to get some lunch going for everyone. Casey was back home, she hadn't spent long at the office, since it was Sunday, and she couldn't do much that day. She said, ''So what do we think? Are we thinking that it's someone who was pissed off at us?'' She thought that that was a real possibility.

Elliot said, ''I don't know, yet. I'm reserving my opinion until Tom and Doug are done investigating at the other schools.'' He was about to say more, when he saw Callie knocking on his office door. ''I gotta go, babe, Callie wants to talk to me. It could be work related, so I actually have to see what she wants. I love you, babe.'' He said, and after receiving the same from his wife, he hung up the phone. ''Come in, Callie.'' He hollered.

Callie entered his office. She wore jeans and a soft purple pleasant top. She usually was a little more relaxed on weekend days, unless they were working an important case, not a lot of interviewing went on on weekends. Her long brown hair was braided, and she looked very businesslike. He was glad to see that, there was no erraneous blushing or nervous twitching, he was glad to see that too. She said, ''Captain, I have to talk to you.''

Elliot gestured towards one of the chairs in front of his desk. ''So what's up, Callie?'' He was hoping that he was right about the suspicion that it was work, because he didn't want it to be anything else, she had been pandering for his attention way too much and it had to stop.

Callie's blue eyes met his, and she said, ''Look, I know that I have been really annoying, with the fawning over you, and I'm letting you know that it's going to stop. I know that it's making things at work really hard. I just want you to know that I am going to move on, find me someone that actually wants to be with me, so it will make things easier here. And I'm sorry that it even had to be that way in the first place. I know how much you love Olivia. I know that and I want to make things better with her, too. I want to be friends.''

Elliot thought she might actually be telling the truth. He nodded. ''That's good, Callie, I'm glad that you feel that way. It will help things a lot. I do want to be friends with you, and if you are going to move on, that will really help. What did Ace say about that? I know that he wants you back. He is always checking you out.'' He smiled at her.

Callie blushed a little, and shook her head, laughing. ''No way, El. I know he wants me back, and I totally don't want to go there. I already dated him, and he's an ex for a reason. I'm glad that we were able to stay friends, though. He's a nice guy, just not someone I would ever want to date again.'' She was glad that things were better with them. It was going to make working together a whole lot easier.

Fin poked his head in the office. ''Hey, El, I need to talk to you about the wedding if you've got a minute.'' He was holding a bridal magazine.

Elliot nodded. ''Sure, Fin. Can you excuse us, Callie?'' He asked, giving her a smile, hoping that it wasn't too flirty of a smile. Sometimes women took his smile to be flirty.

Callie stepped out of the office and Fin stepped in. ''I want to talk tux colors. I think I want you to have something pretty on your vest and tie.'' He flipped open the bridal magazine and put it on El's desk.

Ace and Fitz were talking by Fitz's desk. He was still pretty upset. Ace was wondering why he had bothered to come in that day. They weren't working a big case, he could have stayed home. Ace knew his friend was still upset about Daphne, he had to be. It was pretty devastating. Ace watched as Callie walked out of Elliot's office, and noticed that Fitz was watching her, too. That was worrisome. Ace wondered if Fitz was going to be thinking about moving on with Callie. That was bad. He didn't want him to do anything of the sort. It wouldn't help him at all if Fitz started liking Callie, too. It was bad enough that they had all agreed a long time ago that they weren't going to go there with Callie, and Ace already had. He asked casually, ''So, Fitz, you doing any better this morning?'' He met his friend's brown eyes.

Fitz saw Ace's glance casually go to Callie before looking back into his brown eyes. He knew why his friend was asking. He was afraid that he was going to go for Callie now that he and Daphne had split. He totally wasn't thinking at all about dating anyone new. And even if he did, Callie was off limits. He didn't want to ruin his friendship with her. He said, ''Yeah, I'm feeling a little better.'' He didn't let Ace know that he knew what his friend was thinking.

Callie walked over, smiling. ''Well, El and I will be OK now.'' She felt a lot better. She was glad that things were going to be easier between them. It was going to make work a lot easier.

Ace folded his arms and leaned against Fitz's desk. ''So, I think we need to take Fitz out tonight, get him wasted so he's nice and hungover tomorrow.'' He said, grinning.

Callie and Fitz locked eyes, wondering what Ace's plan was. They both knew he was going to stop at nothing to get Callie back, especially now that she had moved on from Elliot. She hoped Fitz would help keep him off of her. She didn't want her friendship with Ace ruined because he wouldn't listen to reason. She said, ''I guess we could do that if Fitz wants to,'' She knew that Fitz was more than likely fine with just going home and relaxing. Plus, he had Jason to think about. Jason liked to get crazy when Fitz wasn't home.

Fitz turned to Ace. ''If you're buying, Webb, that sounds totally awesome.'' This made them laugh, and he felt a little better. He actually didn't mind going out, as long as Jason wasn't going to get crazy while he was gone. His brother tended to do things he wasn't supposed to do while he wasn't home. It was more than a little annoying.

Callie turned to Ace. ''Well, yeah, Ace, if you're buying, then it totally could be possible.'' She turned to her ringing phone. ''Dect. Curtis, SVU, how may I help you?''

It was Casey. ''Hey, Callie, is Fitz there? He's not answering his cell, and I tried his landline at work and he didn't answer that, either. Something's up with Jason.''

Callie's face turned white as she passed the phone to Fitz. ''Hey, Fitz, it's Casey. She says something is up with your brother.'' She wondered what was wrong. It couldn't be good.

Fitz took the phone from Callie. ''Casey, what's wrong with my brother? Why do you know and I don't?'' He was kind of surprised that if something was wrong with Jason he wasn't the first to know.

Casey said, 'Your brother is in the hospital. I know because I was already here, visiting a victim. He was doing some cliff jumping with some friends and he hit his head when he hit the water. He's not doing well at all.'' She couldn't believe that Jason had been that stupid and had been jumping off of rocks into the Hudson. It was just unbelievably stupid.

Fitz's eyes filled with tears. ''I'll be right there.'' She told him what hospital, and he quickly hung up the phone. He turned to Callie and Ace as he grabbed up his cell. ''Jason was stupid enough to go cliff diving. He hit his head. She made it sound really serious. She said she was already there, so she called to let me know. I'm sure they haven't gotten around to idenitfying him yet.''

Callie touched his arm. ''Do you want me to come with you?'' She could hardly believe that Jason was lying that injured in the hospital. She had known him his entire life. He had never done anything this stupid.

Fitz put his hand over hers, much to Ace's alarm, he had to work not to let it show on his faee. ''Yes, that would be great, Cal.'' He was glad that she was willing to be there for him. It was going to be nice to have someone there who almost counted as family, especially since he and Jason were all each other had.

Ace watched them walk away, really nervous. He could just see the sparks between them, and he was hoping that neither one of them noticed it. He really wanted Callie back. He loved her so much. That's really why they had been able to be friends after they had broken up. He wanted to be with her. He had never stopped loving her.

_It was a calm summer's evening in 2009. California Curtis, aka Callie, was sitting in their living room, trying to make sense of what her boyfriend was telling her. She was wiping tears off her face. '''Seriously, Ace, you're telling me that you aren't sure if you cheated on me or not? How do you not know?'' _

_Ace was wiping tears off his own face, hardly believing that he was in this position in the first place. He loved Callie so much. He had even helped her hide the fact that her first name was California. Her mother had been high on the epidural they'd given her, and had given her the first name she had thought of. She had gone by Callie as soon as she could speak her name. ''I don't know, Callie. I was so wasted, I could barely tell you what my own name was. It was just all kinds of crazy. I'm so sorry I was even in that situation in the first place.''_

_Callie wasn't sure what to do. She loved Ace so much, and she could hardly believe that he had even gotten himself in this position in the first place. She said, ''I need some time to think about this. I need for you to just get out of my sight until I figure things out. You don't have to move any of your things, just take some stuff with you. See if Fitz will let you spend the night.'' She was being very rational about this. She was hoping to come out of this with their friendship intact. Hopefully it was doable. _

Doug was setting out the cheeses for the housewarming party. Judy was finishing cooking things in the kitchen. Tom was already there, sitting on the couch, watching Doug lay out cheeses. He had tried to help, and Judy had banned him to the living room. Doug said, ''Isn't this place awesome, Tommy? I think we'll really be able to raise a family here. I can see us here for a long time.'' He smiled at his best friend.

Tom nodded. ''Yeah, I think you'll be here for awhile. It is a great place.'' He was really jealous of his best friend. His girlfriend had ended up being a total bitch, and they had broken up. She'd nearly cost Fuller his job. Tom had really been upset about it. JHe'd been angry that she had done things the way she did. He was still thinking about Lizzie, though. He was surprised that it wasn't necessarily drug related. They almost had to start at square one with the investigation now. He wasn't sure that he was going to catch this guy, unlike he had originally thought.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

The next day, Olivia was waking up sans Elliot, and that was never good. She rolled out of bed and headed into the bathroom, where she was cheered up. Elliot was showering. She slipped off the football jersey and her underwear and stepped into the shower. ''Morning Mr. Stabler.'' She said, putting her arms around him and kissing his neck.

Elliot was surprised but he completely went with it. He turned around to face her and kissed her. ''Morning Mrs. Stabler.'' He said. He slipped his arms around her and they backed up against the shower wall.

Olivia kissed him until they both couldn't breathe and then slipped her hands down his body until she was gripping his ass. She then began kissing his neck, as he reached for a loufa. He soaped it up and ran it down her back as she kissed his neck. Then she slowly travelled down his body until she had reached his member, which had gotten hard. She put her mouth on it, and El nearly fell to his knees. It had been awhile since he had had one of those, and she was going to do her best to drive him crazy with it. She sucked like it was a sucker, and made his eyes roll back in his head.

After she brought him to the brink, he picked her up, and she slid her legs around his waist. She put her arms tightly around his neck, and he worked at getting himself into her. They backed against the shower wall again and their hips began to rock. Olivia groaned and tightened her hold on his neck, as he braced them against the wall with his hands. After a few more thrusts, they both exploded, and there was a lot of heavy breathing.

Elliot slipped out of her, and she lowered her legs. He kissed her, and they soaped up and got out. The loufa had been dropped and forgotten on the floor of the shower. He climbed out and grabbed up a towel. He had to get ready for work and have some breakfast now. He said, ''Not that I'm not glad, but where did that come from?'' He asked, as Olivia grabbed a towel too, and followed him into the bedroom.

Olivia shrugged. ''I don't know, I woke up and you weren't there, and when I went to go to the bathroom, you were in the shower. I just seized the day. I didn't hear you complaining.'' She teased, as she went to get some underwear, an undershirt, and her robe. She'd worry about getting dressed later.

Elliot pulled out a pair of boxers and stood in front of the walkin closet, not sure what he wanted to wear. Olivia followed him in there, tugging at his boxers as she walked past him to his side of the closet. She pulled out a pair of gray slacks, and a blue dress shirt. She grabbed the matching jacket that went with the slacks and placed it in his arms. He said, ''Thanks, Liv.'' He went back out to get dressed.

Olivia said, ''I'm going to go make breakfast.'' She gave him a kiss and headed downstairs. She found her best friend in the kitchen, freshly showered and dressed. She said, ''Good morning, Casey. How're you?'' She smiled and went to the fridge. ''Aw, out of eggs. Rats. Guess it's bagels and cream cheese.'' She said.

Casey glanced at her friend, and said, ''Wow, Livvy, early morning sex. I knew you were in too good of a mood.'' She went to get some more coffee.

Olivia grinned as she got out the bagels and put some in the toaster. They spent a horrid amount on food with having so many in the household. After she got breakfast going she was going to go get Eli and the twins up. She had some toddler breakfast things for them that she was going to heat up in the microwave. They were a lot easier to feed. She said, ''Yeah, I just had to have some. I took it as a good sign, more of that I'm returning to the land of the living.'' She still thought it was a good idea to keep the appointment with Huang, though, she still wasn't feeling completely up to snuff.

Casey tossed her long red hair back over her shoulder. ''You guys had a call from the Jump Street guys this morning before you came down. They're starting at their new school this morning. That's all they wanted me to tell you. That they're still trying to catch this guy. Any longer, though, and they're going to get pulled, especially since it's looking more like a hit.''

Olivia took in this information. ''OK. That's good. I think they're good boys. They're really trying to find out who did this.'' She changed the subject, out of need to change the subject. She said, ''Did Elliot tell you that Callie told him she's going to move on? I think it's going to make things at work a whole lot easier.''

Callie Curtis was waking up in Fitz's bed. Jason Fitzwater had passed away in his sleep the night before, and she and Fitz had gone back to his house to drink. He had been inconsolable, until he had drank enough of the Jiim Beam, then he was kissing her, and she had been drunk enough not to stop him. She sat up. She had a massive headache. She could not believe that this had happened. She touched her hand to her temples.

Fitz woke up beside her, and sat up, hardly daring to believe that this had happened, either. He said, ''Did I really do this with you last night?'' He took a glance under the covers and answered for them. ''Yeah, this happened.'' He ran a hand through his hair, shocked beyond belief. He hoped that this wouldn't ruin their friendship.

Callie groaned. ''Oh, Fitz, that was the stupidest thing we have ever done. I can't believe that we did that.'' She ran a hand through her brown hair, trying to ignore the pounding headache. ''And I'm so sorry about Jason. I didn't think that that was going to happen. It's just awful.'' She said, tears filling her eyes again.

Fitz tried to focus and ignore his pounding headache, too. He was trying to remember what happened last night after they left the hospital. He had no memory. ''Cal, I don't remember what happened last night after we left the hospital. We must have been wasted. What were we drinking?'' He asked, as he got up, trying to hide himself from her, although there was no reason to anymore.

Callie shook her head. ''All I remember is the Jim Beam. Fitz, you need to call work and tell them about Jason, and there's plans and things to do. Do you want me to help you with any of it?'' She asked, turning around to get dressed.

Fitz shook his head. ''You go on to work. You can shower if you want, I'm going to go ahead and start making calls. There's a lot of things to do, but I can do it myself. I'm sorry about last night, I'm sure it was me that started it.''

Callie froze as she was pulling her shirt over her head. ''Are we going to tell people? Ace is going to be very upset. He'll get all British and angry and call us British slang words.'' She was trying to joke a little about it, because she was so horrified with herself.

Fitz said, ''Let's not say anything right now. Let me tell him. I will be as nice about it as possible. I don't want him to do anything rash.'' He paused before leaving the bedroom. ''Cal, I'm sorry this had to happen this way, but thanks for being there for me.'' Then he walked out of the room without giving her a chance to reply.

Callie's heart broke as she finished getting dressed and left the apartment, without saying goodbye. When she got to the precinct, she hoped that no one would notice she wore yesterday's clothes. She was completely horrified and didn't want to talk about it. She was immediately attacked with questions, so she assumed that Fitz had called already. She glanced towards El's office out of habit, and noticed that he wasn't in yet. She wondered who he had spoken to. She said, ''Slow down, guys, I can only answer one question at a time.''

Ace looked at her, tears filling his green eyes. Everyone stepped back a minute, and let them talk. Everyone knew how long they had known each other and the Fitzwaters. Callie stood awkwardly, waiting for Ace to speak. He reached out to hug her, hoping that she would see it as friendship, and let him. ''How's he taking it?'' He asked, as they pulled away after a very brief hug. Things like that were still awkward between them, even after all of the time that had passed since they had broken up.

Callie had hurriedly yanked her long brown hair up into a French braid on the subway ride from Fitz's apartment. She hoped that she would be able to hide what had happened from Ace. She said, ''He's doing horribly. After finding out about Daphne running off with his brother, and then Jason doing something so stupid and getting himself killed, he's pretty broken up.'' She knew she needed to talk to Ace about him finding himself new lodgings, and she hoped that she would be able to stop herself from bringing it up now. It was going to depend on how Ace behaved right now. It all hinged on him.

Ace ran his hand through his hair, which had been getting longer in the past few months, touching his collar. He looked like hell himself. She wondered if he had assumed that she had stayed at Fitz's the night before. He had to be wondering why she never came home. He paced a little, and then turned to her, lowering his voice. ''Callie, did you spend the night at Dalton's last night?'' She didn't miss that he had called him Dalton.

Callie wrung her hands. She wasn't sure what to tell him. She knew the truth was the best answer. Any kind of lie she gave him he was going to see through. ''Yes, Ace, I did.'' She braced herself from the incoming onslaught of questions he was sure to have.

Her best friend paced in front of her, still looking very upset, and as if he didn't know what to ask, also. He folded his arms, and then unfolded them, he seemed to know that that wasn't the best course, although she didn't blame him for being upset. He said, ''So, what happened? Or do I even want to know?'' He nervously, but with some anger, too, tugged at his shirt.

Callie fidgeted with her own clothes, knowing that there was no way out of this, and knowing that he was about to get very upset with her. ''There was a lot of Jiim Beam, and then it just kind of happened.'' She stammered, practically wincing as she imagined what he was going to say next, and she knew that it was going to be ten times worse than what she was actually thinking.

Ace did not disappoint. ''What the hell, Callie? I mean, seriously! You had to do something like that with Fitz? I mean, he's just been informed that his fiance was shagging his brother that he didn't know he had, and then his younger brother that he actually cared about dies, and you have to go and get knockered and shag him. I just, I can't even begin to imagine where your head was, Callie. And what about your friendship with him? Doesn't that mean anything to you?'' He asked, not caring that everyone in the precinct was starting to stare at them.

Callie stood tall. She knew that Ace was upset, as well he should be, but there was no reason to attack her like that. She knew how she was going to handle this. She geared back and began letting him have it as Elliot was coming into work, Alex following him. ''Look. Ace, I know you think you have some claim to me, since you want me back, but Fitz was the one who came on to me. He started everything. And we were both so wasted, we just went with it. Fitz was glad that I was there for him, and in time, you will be, too. I don't want you back. I just can't get past the fact that you don't know if you cheated on me or not. I still want to be friends, we've known each other far too long to not try, but I don't want to have anything to do with you romantically ever again. And I want you to find somewhere else to live. You can take your time, the real estate sucks in New York, but you need to be out as soon as you can.'' She hated to lay all of that on him, especially with all that was going on, but it had to be done.

Elliot stepped forward as he saw Ace's arm fly back. ''Look, I want to cut you some slack, because you seem like a nice guy, so I'm going to let you off with a warning and a get out of my precinct now. You will never raise your hand to another woman ever again, no matter what they say or do to you. Just remind yourself that you work in the Special Victims Unit, Ackerley.'' He had never thought that he would see the day that Ace would raise his hand to a woman.

He watched as Ace left the precinct, without a glance at Callie. He turned to her. ''Are you alright, Callie? What was that all about and where's Fitzwater?'' He asked, taking off his jacket and handing it to an underling, who took it quickly to his office for him.

Callie looked upset, and tried to keep the tears from falling down her face. ''Fitz's brother passed away last night. He was cliff diving in the Hudson, and it turned out badly. Do you really want to know what the fight with Ace was about? I'd really rather not get into it.'' She said, folding her arms.

Elliot knew that that must be quite a blow to Fitz, and decided that it was best not to ask about her fight with Ace. ''No, if you don't want to tell me, Callie, it's cool.'' He lowered his voice. ''Callie, I know you and I have had our ups and downs, but don't let Ackerley Webb treat you that way. You are a woman, and you have rights. Let me know if his treatment of you gets any worse.'' He touched her arm and headed off to his office, to begin the day's paperwork.

Fin walked up to her, give the trembling girl a hug. ''Don't worry, Callie, everything will be alright. Toot's here to take care of you.'' He hugged her tightly, as she cried on his shoulder.

Ace Webb angrily stepped out into the street, directly in front of a cab. He didn't feel the need to live anymore. The cab hit him, and he rolled up over it and fell hard to the concrete. There was no sign of movement.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Callie walked into the hospital, not sure that she should be there, not sure that Ace would want her to be. Fin and Munch had both come with her. She sat down outside his hospital room, in intensive care, nervously twitching her thumbs. She had called Fitz, too, and he said he would be down. She was very nervous. She hadn't been told much about his condition, just that he was in intensive care. He was her emergency contact. Ace didn't have any contact with his family at all, they hadn't wanted him to be a cop. Ace's parents were very rich. They had been disappointed that their son wanted to work a civil service job.

Fin had his arm around her, and he was whispering to her. ''He'll be OK, Callie. Ace is a fighter. I can't believe that they didn't tell you how he was doing. That doesn't make any sense. You're his emergency contact.''

Munch was standing up next to their chairs. He was nervous, he didn't really like hospitals. He was holding Fin's free hand and squeezing pretty hard. ''This is making me nervous.'' He sounded like a little child, and it made his fiancee smile.

Fin said, ''Don't worry baby, you'll be fine. I promise you won't have to end up as a patient here.'' He squeezed Callie tighter. ''How long until Fitz gets here?'' Callie had filled him in on why she and Ace had been in a fight, so he knew all of the details.

Callie sniffled and wiped her eyes with her free hand. She said, ''He just told me he would be here as soon as he could. Did you get a chance to call Casey on the way here?'' She asked. She hoped she wasn't about to lose Ace. She had been friends with him for so long, and now she completely regretted what had transpired between them. She said, ''I bet that he's angry at me, and that's why he stepped out in front of that cab. Did you hear? There was quite a few eyewitnesses that said he stepped out in front of the cab on purpose.''

Before Fin could say anything to comfort her, Elliot and Casey both came walking up. Elliot patted Callie on the shoulder. ''So he jumped in front of a cab?'' He asked, as Casey bent down to give Callie a hug. She knew that she wasn't going to get up with Fin sitting with her. Callie loved Fin more than anyone in the world, even Casey, and Casey was one of her best friends.

Callie nodded. ''I talked to one of the cops when I got here. He told me that Ace was in critical condition, because he had stepped out in front of a cab. He told me that there were eyewitnesses that saw him do it. I can't believe that the news about me and Fitz made him that depressed that he wanted to end his life.'' She sniffled as tears ran down her face.

Casey squeezed her hand. ''It's not your fault that Ace got upset, you weren't dating him, and you and Fitz are grown adults. You are not responsible for Ace's actions.'' She said. She was surprised that Callie was even letting it get to her that way. She was usually more sensible than that. And until now, she had never let Ace get to her. She knew that he wanted her back, but she hadn't let him guilt her into anything. Casey knew it was because of the breakup circumstances. She didn't know what they were, but she knew that Ace had been in the wrong.

Elliot said, ''Has anyone talked to you? How long as he been in the ICU? Did they do surgery already? Have they told you anything?'' He was curious. He couldn't believe that Ace had done this. He had always seemed like such a normal guy, despite the British thing.

Callie shook her head. ''No one's talked to me, and he isn't actually in his room, he's still in surgery. That's all I know, though, I have no more information than that. I'm really worried. Fitz will be here, soon, but I doubt Ace is going to want to see either one of us. I got mad at him and told him to get out of my apartment, Casey. And I told him I didn't want him back, I just, I don't know what possessed me to pick that moment to let him know that he had to go. I could have picked a better time, we had just found out about Jason.''

Elliot looked at her, and said, ''Callie Curtis, I told you, he had no right to speak to you that way. You did the right thing. He was being a jerk about something that while I can understand why he was mad, there was no reason to take it out on you. Olivia and I had that same discussion over Brian Cassidy, you remember him, you had just started with us when his trial was going on. Anyway, Olivia slept with him gosh, it's been eleven years ago now. Well, anyway, I was upset about it, because he got there first. There was no reason to be upset, I couldn't change it, no matter how hard I tried. But I've never taken it out on Olivia, it wasn't her fault, we weren't together then. I had no right to be upset with her. My point being is, that Ace should be talking to Fitz about it, instead of getting angry with you. Getting angry with you is going to change nothing.''

Callie took that all in. ''Yes, but you see how the Cassidy situation ended up for you. You beat the shit out of him and then you found out he was trying to kill you. I don't want Ace to end up trying to kill me or Fitz. That would not be a preferable solution.'' She said, breaking off as a nurse walked up to them.

''Are any of you California Curtis?'' She asked, and Callie groaned. Everyone would now know her full name, it had been nice while it lasted. She saw everyone trying to laugh.

Callie nodded. ''Yes, ma'am, I am Callie Curtis. Do you have news about Ace Webb?'' She asked, trying to ignore all the smirks her friends were giving her, despite the seriousness over the situation.

The nurse said, ''I'm Nurse Judy, and I regret to inform you that they did all they could, but we lost Mr. Webb. His internal injuries were too exstensive. I'm sorry for your loss.'' She said, and gave Elliot a hug before she walked away.

Callie dissolved into tears, as Fitz walked up and joined the group. She thanked Fin and threw her arms around Fitz, sobbing. She told him in a whisper that they'd lost him, and Fitz put his arms around her, too, hugging tightly. He was glad that she was wanting him to comfort her, he had actually enjoyed the night before. Some memories had been coming back to him in pieces throughout the morning. Callie stepped back from him after a minute or so. She told him what happened with Ace. ''I know I wasn't supposed to tell him, Fitz, but he guessed that something had happened, and it just spiraled from there. I feel terrible now.'' She said, tears still slipping off her face.

Fitz shook his head, hugging her tightly again. ''No way, Callie. You don't get to blame yourself for this. You can't control what Ace does. It was his decision to do something this stupid. It's not your fault. I will not have you blaming yourself. We are adults, we are responsible for our own actions.'' He kissed her cheek. ''Well, do you want me to take you home? I can make you some tea, or if you don't want to be there because of all of Ace's things you can come and spend the night at my place. I would appreciate the company.'' Fitz didn't know what he was doing, but he was going to go with it. He wasn't ready for a relationship, and he wasn't sure Callie was, either, but the sex was amazing. Maybe they could take it slow and see what happens.

Callie thought staying at Fitz's place sounded heavenly. ''Do you still have any Jiim Beam?'' She asked, knowing that a repeat of the night before was a possibility, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted to get drunk and forget everything.

Fitz nodded as she said bye to everyone. ''Yes, I have some. Anyone else want to join us? I've got plenty of alcohol if anyone else wants to come and party.'' He said, really just extending the invitation to be polite. He didn't really want any of them to come.

Fin looked to Callie. ''Cal, do you want me and Uncle Munch to come? If not, it's fine. We'll do whatever you want us to do.'' He could tell that Fitz didn't want either of them to come, but he knew it was because Fitz was wanting to get lucky again. Fin appreciated that. He thought Fitz and Callie would be really good for each other. They had known each other for a long time, they knew what they were getting into.

Callie just wanted to spend time with Fitz, as much as she loved Fin, she wanted to be with Fitz, because she and Fitz had known Ace for a long time, and she thought it should just be them mourning him right now. She appreciated the fact that they would come if she wanted them to. Her eyes welled up with tears as she gave him a tight hug. ''Toot, I love you so much, and I appreciate that you would do that for me, but right now, I think that it should be just me and Fitz right now. But thank you so much, I really seriously love you to pieces.'' She barely got that out with all the tears in her voice.

Munch hugged her, too, and Casey. Elliot just stuck with a clap on the shoulder, but Callie seemed to accept this without question. They watched them walk away, and Munch said, ''Things like this are always tough. I can't believe that something like this happened.''

Elliot shrugged as they all started to leave the hospital. Casey had ridden with him, he'd picked her up from her office on the way. He asked, ''Casey, do you want to head back to the office or do you want to join me in getting some lunch?'' He asked, and then turned to Fin and Munch. ''You guys want to come, too?'' He asked.

Fin looked at Munch. ''Yeah, let's go get some lunch.'' He was wondering what Elliot was thinking. He was so casually inviting them, and they really hadn't said much about the news they had just received. Fin said, ''So I hope that Callie and Fitz will be OK, it has to be rough losing someone that you were friends with for all that time.'' He wanted to talk about it. They had known Ace for awhile now, and they had started to become friends with him, and it was only natural that they talked about their feelings about his death.

Elliot knew what Fin was trying to do. He was trying to get them to share their feelings. He had been that way a lot since he had come out of the closet. It was the inner gay child in him. That sounded horrible, especially coming from a man whose daughter had been gay, but he couldn't help it. He was only good at sharing his feelings with Olivia. He loved Fin, he was his brother in law, but he just didn't feel like baring his soul like that with anyone but Olivia. ''Fin, I love you, man, you are my brother in law, but I am not talking about this Ace thing with you. I just don't want to. I will talk about it with Olivia at home if I think I need to.''

Fin knew that there was no changing Elliot's mind, so he changed the subject. ''So, John and I think we may have found a venue for the wedding. John wanted a church, with a rabbi, but I just can't give it to him. So I think I managed to get the Plaza.'' They couldn't really afford the Plaza, but Fin knew a guy, and they were getting a fabulous deal because they were cops. He was very excited.

Elliot and Casey looked at Fin in shock. ''Are you serious? The Plaza? How the hell are you affording it? You're a cop in New York City in case you hadn't noticed.'' Elliot said, as they reached his car.

Fin smiled. ''Got connections, man. So, where are we going, John and I will meet you there.'' He wondered if Casey was alright. Because of her friendship with Callie, she had spent a lot of time with Ace. She and Callie were both single females, and they had hung out a lot together outside of work. She did look a little disappointed that they weren't talking about it. He would text her once he got to his car and let her know that she could talk to him about it if she wanted. He had hung out with Callie some outside of work, but since they were partners, they had spent a lot of time together anyway, just on stakeouts and what have you.

Casey looked at Elliot, before turning back to Fin. ''I'm really just hungry for anything, I'm not picky. What do you guys want to have?'' She asked. She had liked Ace a lot, she had thought he was a nice guy. She could hardly believe that he had done something like this. She knew he had no family that was going to help Callie with this, so she was going to have to do all of that work herself. It was heartbreaking. She knew that Callie didn't want to deal with this. Casey hoped that Fitz would help her, she had seen the sparks flying between them, and she knew that they probably were aware of them, too. She could tell that Fitz was glad that it was just going to be himself and Callie drinking.

Fin suggested they hit up a Chinese food place, and it was agreed. Fin mused to himself as he headed to the car. This was going to be hard on everyone. They had had so much tragedy lately, when were things going to start getting better?

A couple of days later, it was time for the funeral. Everyone had already filed in, and the minister had already begun speaking. ''Ackerley Webb was only thirty years old. He had served this city well with his police work for twelve years. Ace went in the police academy at age 18. Directly out of high school. He worked his way up to detective, with going to night school. He had to deal with estrangement from his family because of his wonderful service to this city. His friend Callie Curtis has requested that the song _Cryin For Me_, by Toby Keith, be played at this time.'' The little organ player lady hit the button on the CD player and the song filled the church.

"_Sorry you missed me_

_I'll get back with you as soon as I can_

_Thank you and god bless"_

_Got the news on Friday mornin'_

_But a tear I couldn't find_

_You showed me how I'm supposed to live_

_And now you showed me how to die_

_I was lost till Sunday mornin'_

_I woke up to face my fear_

_While I'm writing you this goodbye song_

_I found a tear_

_I'm gonna miss that smile_

_I'm gonna miss you my friend_

_Even though it hurts the way it ended up_

_I'd do it all again_

_So play it sweet in heaven_

'_Cause that's right where you wanna be_

_I'm not crying 'cause I feel so sorry for you_

_I'm crying for me_

_I got up and dialed your number_

_And your voice came on the line_

_That old familiar message_

_I heard a thousand times it just said_

_Sorry that I missed you_

_Leave a message and god bless_

_I know you think I'm crazy_

_But I had to hear your voice I guess_

_I'm gonna miss that smile_

_I'm gonna miss you my friend_

_Even though it hurts the way it ended up_

_I'd do it all again_

_So play it sweet in heaven_

'_Cause that's right where you wanna be_

_I'm not crying 'cause I feel so sorry for you_

_I'm crying for me_

_So play your upside-down, left handed_

_Backwards bass guitar_

_And I'll see you on the other side_

_Superstar_

_I'm gonna miss that smile_

_I'm gonna miss you my friend_

_Even though it hurts the way it ended up_

_I'd do it all again_

_So play it sweet in heaven_

'_Cause that's right where you wanna be_

_I'm not crying 'cause I feel so sorry for you_

_I'm crying for me_

_I'm still crying_

_I'm crying for me_

_I'm still crying_

Everyone was crying. Callie got up and went up to the podium. She wanted to speak. ''Ace Webb was one of my best friends. I knew him growing up. We were pretty close. He was two grades ahead of me in school, he knew my friend Fitz, and that's how we got to know each other. I met him when I was twelve years old, and I immediately got a crush on him. For a long time, he only saw me as a little sister. When we were older, at the academy, is when we started dating. We were together for about nine years. I would have stayed with him forever, if unfortunate circumstances hadn't forced us to part ways. There will always be a place in my heart for Ace. He was a good man, and he didn't deserve the unhappiness that led him to do what he did. No one think badly of Ace, he would do anything for anyone. He was always that way. A small part of me will love him until I die.''

Fitz stepped up to speak. He had tears coursing down his cheeks, too. He was nervous about speaking. He stepped up to the podium and adjusted the mike. Callie was at least three inches shorter than he was, she was only five six. He said, ''I am Dalton Fitzwater. I was friends with Ace. He was probably my best friend. Callie and Ace and I were inseperable for most of our young lives. There wasn't anywhere we wouldn't go together. I don't have a memory that doesn't have them in it. When my fiancee Daphne revealed that she had been cheating on me, Ace was there for me. He didn't deserve what happened. Callie and I are adults, and what happened was beyond our control. He was hurt, and I'm sorry that we hurt him the way we did. I feel terrible. Don't let anyone speak badly of Ace to you. He never really meant any of the mean things he may have done from time to time. He made mistakes, just like everyone else.'' He paused a minute, and then sang softly, ''I'm not cryin' cause I feel so sorry for you, I'm cryin for me.'' He was overcome by tears for a moment, and then said, ''We will miss Ace the most. His family couldn't be bothered to come to his funeral, and it is really sad that they carried that grudge to Ace's grave. He missed his family greatly. I know it bothered him every day that they didn't have any more contact with him. He missed them a lot.'' He turned to Ace's coffin, and blew a kiss at it. ''I hope you're happy where you are. We miss you a lot. You didn't have to do what you did.''

Callie wasn't able to hold her composure anymore. She fell to the floor in the middle of the church, crying so hard she couldn't breathe. She wasn't sure that she was going to be able to make it to the cemetary. Fitz and Fin both went to her aide. She took Fin's hand, but she turned to Fitz to hold her. She was aware how that looked, most were going to assume that she and Fitz were in a relationship, and it was going to cause a scandal among some of their friends. She couldn't help it. He was her oldest friend, and she wasn't going to apologize for that. She squeezed them both as tight as she could, still not being able to stop the tears from flowing.

The funeral ended, and most weren't sure what to do about the sobbing young woman with the old gay black man and the young good looking straight boy both comforting her. Daphne had showed up, much to her and Fitz's dismay. She hadn't tried to talk to either of them, but she had gone up to the coffin to say something to Ace. They were both fine with her being there as long as that's all she was doing. Fitz helped her up, whispering that they had to go to the cemetary, see Ace entombed. She leaned on him, her knees were so weak.

The wake was held at Fitz's. All of SVU was there, including Elliot's family. It was a dual wake, they were also celebrating Jason Fitzwater's life, so there were a lot of kids who knew Lizzie there, too. Actually, the "McQuaid" brothers showed up. Tom thought it was a good idea to show their respects to Jason. Doug had argued with him, not sure why they had to go. It was a Wednesday, they would have school the next day. Tom also told him that it was a good idea because they would probably run into Elliot and Olivia, and they could inform them that they knew who had put a hit on their daughter.

Merritt Rook was getting angry at Dani Beck. She had done a bad job of covering up the hit on Elizabeth Stabler, the undercover boys now knew who was behind it. They knew who Merritt had hired, but not that Merritt was behind it. He was almost ready to quit working with her. He was also having her work on some way to get Cassidy out of jail. He didn't have any more faith in him, but his hatred of Elliot was going to work for his advantage, whether he liked it or not.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Munch and Fin were at the tux shop with Olivia and Callie. They were having the tuxes fitted for them. Fin was waiting for them to step out of the dressing rooms. Olivia was hollering out to him. ''Hey, Fin, if I'm giving you away, why am I wearing a tux? I should be allowed to wear a beautiful dress.''

Fin chuckled. ''Livvy, I love you, but I'm not having someone looking prettier than me on my wedding day. Your tux is going to have a beautiful navy blue vest.'' He said, and then turned towards the door to the dressing room Callie was in. ''Callie, you OK in there?'' He asked, pacing back in front of the doors.

Olivia left the dressing room, adjusting her vest. They had had it fitted closer, so she could look like a woman in it. She took a look in the mirror as Fin came over to her, smiling. ''Wow, Liv, you look great!'' He said as he gave her a hug.

Callie stepped out of her dressing room, too. She was tinier than Liv, her suit was even more fitted than Olivia's. She had an ivory vest with her suit, since she was the best man/maid of honor. She tossed her brown hair off her shoulders. She was glad that she looked so good. She didn't feel like a drag queen at all. She was a little hungover, she and Fitz had gotten drunk again the night before. That was three days in a row since Ace's funeral. She was starting to worry about herself. She had never been a drinker before, and she wanted to stop. It made the sex with Fitz much easier to handle.

Fin stepped over to look at hers as Olivia went to show John. He was out looking at the tuxes. Cragen was his best man, and they were waiting for him to arrive so they could get him fitted, too. They'd already taken care of Fin's son Ken. Fin took a glance at Callie from all angles and then turned to her. ''So, how are you doing?'' He asked, wanting the real answer. He hoped that she would share it with him.

Callie sighed as she took off the jacket and hung it over her arm. ''I'm a little hungover, that's for sure. Things with Fitz are going well, we just don't know what to call it yet.'' She said, glad that she and Fitz had decided something. She wasn't sure if they'd be able to do anything if they weren't drunk, but it had been amazing. They hadn't been sober enough to try yet.

Fin said, ''That's not what I asked. I asked how you are doing. You're my partner, we're best friends, we have to be able to talk about this stuff. It will make work awkward. So, how are you doin?''

Callie knew she was going to have to tell him, he'd keep asking until she did. ''I don't know. I've been very drunk the past few days. I am taking some time to grieve for Ace. I'm surprised I didn't have anything leftover in my system when you called this morning and asked if I could come and try on my tux. I'm sorry I've been kind of immobile the past few days, I know you've been trying to get ahold of me.''

Alex strolled into the store, before Fin could say anything back. Alex was also a groomsperson. She was going to be on Munch's side. Fin had also asked Huang to be the minister, he had thought it was a good idea, since Huang was gay and everything. She walked right over to Fin and Callie, she hadn't seen Munch and Olivia when she had walked in. ''Hey guys, just left Rose. I had such a good time with her.'' She said, grinning, until she noticed the serious faces. ''What's going on?'' She asked.

Fin said, ''Just trying to get Callie to tell me how she's actually feeling. So, Rose is turning into a good thing, huh?'' He asked, wondering if she had told Elliot and Olivia yet that she was dating a woman. The rest of the Unit and Casey knew already. And Cragen. Liv and Elliot were the last ones to know.

Alex nodded. ''Yes, and I am so glad that I said yes when she asked me out. I'm thinking if we're still together I'm going to bring her to the wedding. Of course, she has to meet you all before I do that. It will be less awkward that way. And I have to tell Elliot and Olivia. I think they'll take it OK.'' She said, as the woman helping them brought over Alex's tux to try on.

Fin said, ''Yeah, they'd be pretty hypocritcal if they didn't. Not after they found out about Lizzie, and if Munch and I are any indication I think you're OK. So when are you going to tell them, by the way?'' He asked as Alex headed into the dressing room to get changed, and Callie headed into hers to get her clothes back on. She didn't need anymore tailoring to hers.

Alex said, ''Well, I'm headed over to their house for dinner tonight, so I figured tonight was good. I'm really nervous about saying anything, even though I know they'll be cool. And Casey's going to be there, so that will really help me out. She already knows, so she can be there for moral support.''

Fin was surprised. The kids would be there. Maureen and Kathleen most likely wouldn't, but Dick and the younger kids would be. ''Really? You're going to tell them with the kids there? Casey I can understand, but the kids? Do you really want them to know?'' He asked.

Alex shrugged despite the fact that Fin couldn't see her and said, ''Yeah, I don't mind. They know about you and Munch, they're coming to the wedding. They might as well know about Aunt Alex, too.'' She said, as she exited the dressing room in the tux. Her vest was also navy blue.

Olivia came back, to change her clothes, and said, ''Wow, Alex, you look great. Totally like a hot sexy lawyer on a really classy Playboy or something.'' She said, hoping that Alex didn't take that the wrong way.

Alex knew what Olivia meant, and smiled. ''Thanks, Liv, I appreciate it!'' She then looked at Fin. ''Well, Fin, it mainly matters what you and John think. So, what do you think?'' She asked.

Fin glanced her over, taking a complete 360 view. ''I approve, you look very nice, Alex.'' He turned to Olivia. ''Get that off before you get something on it, and if we hurry we can have lunch.'' He said, as Olivia chuckled and headed into her dressing room.

Alex took a look in the mirror, agreed with Liv's comment, and then went back to change quickly. Then she came back out. She said, ''Yes, let's get some lunch. Chinese sounds good.'' She added.

Fin agreed. ''Let's go ask John if that's what he wants.'' He said, as they all left the dressing rooms, Olivia giving her tux back to the woman for some last minute tailoring. She had lost some more baby weight. She almost hoped that she didn't lose any more, since she wouldn't be able to get the tux fitted again, this was the final fitting before the wedding.

Elliot was at home with his children, watching Cars. Dickie was in school. Elliot was feeding Scarlett, and the boys were all very excitedly bouncing in their playpen at the movie. Elliot had gotten Scarlett to go to sleep, finally. She hadn't really been sleeping through the night the past few days and it was really annoying. He knew it would be over in a few months, it was just getting to those few months that was the hard part. He kept ahold of her, he was afraid if he moved too much she would wake up.

Eli threw a wrench in the plan when he asked for juice. He said, ''Alright, Eli, give Daddy just a minute.'' He went to put Scarlett upstairs in her crib. He'd just have to risk waking her up. He couldn't not give Eli any juice. He safely secured Scarlett away in her crib and headed back down. Casey surprised him by coming in the front door. ''Case, what are you doing home?'' He asked.

Casey said, ''I decided to take some of the day off, I don't have any more court cases today, and I've worked so much ot in the past few months that I have earned it. So, I'm going to order some pizza. Do you want anything?'' She asked, getting out the pizza takeout menus in the kitchen drawer.

Elliot went to fill a sippy cup with some apple juice. He said, ''No, I'm OK. Eat your pizza. Liv and the others went for Chinese after the tux fitting.'' He added.

Casey nodded. She had received a text from Alex about it. She was the photographer for the wedding, so she got to wear whatever she wanted. She said, ''Yeah, Alex texted me, asked me if I wanted to go. I just wanted to come back home and relax. What are you doing with the kids?'' She asked.

Elliot replied, ''They're watching Cars. I was feeding Scarlett and trying to get her to sleep. I succeeded, and she is asleep in her room. Hopefully, she'll sleep through the night, I am exhausted. I am way too old for this anymore.'' He still looked fabulous, but Casey did think he looked a little tired.

Casey said, ''You'll be fine, El, she'll start sleeping through the night soon. I am so jealous, I would love some kids.'' Casey would love to have a man in her life that wasn't like a brother to her. Right now, that seemed an impossibility.

Elliot was about to answer her when his phone rang. He picked it up off the kitchen counter as he hollered for Eli to come and get his juice. As little feet came padding to the kitchen, he was saying, ''Hey, Livvy, what's up, baby?''

Olivia sounded panicked. She said, ''El, baby, Merritt Rook and Dani Beck helped Cassidy break out of jail last night.'' She was very worried. She thought with Merritt Rook gone he was out of their lives. Sadly, she was mistaken.

Elliot nearly dropped his cell phone, and Casey had to hand Eli his juice. ''Are you serious? They could chose to come after the kids now. And us.'' He said, as Casey gave him a questioning look.

Olivia said, ''Casey's in danger too, she is the one who tried him. I am very uneasy about this, because they actually succeeded. They're on the run now. And we know Rook is good at hiding, He has alluded the cops plenty of times. I don't like this. We have to do something. We know that Dani and Merritt Rook will stop at nothing, and they'll make Cassidy come along out of obligation. I don't know what to do but we have to stop them. We have to protect our family.''

Elliot knew she was right. ''Hey, what if Rook is the one who ordered the hit on Lizzie? He could still be trying to get to us. It would make sense, he's been out there biding his time since Cassidy was put in jail.'' He hated to think that someone had been out there planning revenge, and especially if he had decided to take it out on his kid. He knew that if it was Rook, it was most likely that he had a further plan, and that would make sense, since they had helped Cassidy break out of jail.

Olivia thought that Elliot could be right. ''Really, you might have something there. We should talk to Hanson and Penhall, see if they have any information that might lead to Rook. Although if they did I can't believe that they wouldn't have called us by now.'' She was standing outside the Chinese resturant with the others, very nervous. Fin was already on the phone with the cops at Rykers, asking them all about what had happened the night before.  
Elliot said, ''I don't feel right with you out there. Come home, and we'll talk about what we're going to do. I know you're with Fin and Munch, but I am very nervous. I won't feel right until I have you here at home where I can put my arms around you.''

There were gunshots on Olivia's end, and Elliot was hollering her name. She came back on the phone, crying. ''They got Alex, El, we're on the way to the hospital! Someone drove by and shot at us! They knew where we were!''

Elliot told her he loved her and hung up, he had to call Maureen, get her to come over and watch the kids so that Casey and he could go to the hospital. They had to wait what seemed an eternity before she got there, and then they flew out the door. When they reached the hospital, Alex was still in surgery. Elliot rushed to Olivia and put his arms around her and held on as tightly as he could. Fin had called Rose, and she was there, too. Looks like the time to explain about Alex was here.

Olivia said, ''It was lucky that none of the rest of us got hurt, Elliot. I'm worried. It's not good. We don't even know if it was Rook because we didn't get to see who it was, we just have to assume it was, since we know that they broke Cassidy out of jail, it could have been anyone.'' She hugged him as tightly as she could. She felt so much better now that she had Elliot with her and she knew he was safe.

Fin waited until they had broke apart before he told them what he had found out. ''Cassidy wasn't the only one who escaped. Merritt had Dani set off a bomb and half the ward he was in got out. They caught about half of them, but Cassidy was one of the ones that got away. A lot of guards and prisoners were killed in the blast. Now we have to come up with a plan to help keep you and the little Stablers safe.'' He said.

Olivia said, ''What about Casey? And we have to worry about the whole Unit, he could be coming after everyone. Alex got shot because of us. I don't want any more of you hurt because of me.'' She was very upset.

Merritt Rook and Dani Beck were celebrating. Cassidy seemed to have grown a conscience, and he was wondering why they had broken him out of jail. Rook and Dani were drinking a lot of wine, and as soon as they had passed out, Cassidy was planning on breaking out so he could turn himself back in. He hadn't asked them to break him out, and he knew that anything they were planning wasn't going to get him Olivia back. He knew that they were going to lose, too, they were up against Elliot and Olivia. Elliot and Olivia always got their man.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Olivia was asleep in the hospital, in Elliot's arms. They were still waiting for word about Alex. Elliot was awake, but he ran his hands through Olivia's hair, watching everything. Fin and Munch were also asleep, Alex's girlfriend was awake and nervously twtiching her thumbs, on her phone, updating someone on how they still knew nothing. Casey had gone to get some coffee. Elliot held Olivia tight as he could. He felt so much better with his arms around her, knowing that she was safe. They had already sent a couple of cops out to the house to keep an eye on the kids. He wanted them to be safe, even with Maureen there. He did have an extra gun, though, and he knew that Mo knew where it was.

Fin turned to Elliot. He had woken up. ''Why is this taking so long? I'm starting to get nervous. She's been back there for three hours. She only got shot in the shoulder, there must have been complications from the surgery.'' He said.

Elliot nodded. ''I know, I'm beginning to get nervous, too. I also want Casey to get back here with my coffee. I need caffeine.'' He ran a free hand through his hair and then put his arm right back around Olivia.

Fin smiled. It was nice how Elliot wanted to know she was alright, and was holding her so tightly. He was glad that he was treating his sister so well. ''I'm glad that you're taking such good care of my Livvy.'' He said, hoping that Elliot wouldn't get angry that he was saying something. It was always hard to tell with Elliot.

Elliot knew Fin was really meaning what he was saying, and he wasn't saying it to be a dick. ''Thanks, Fin, I'm glad you agree.'' He inclined his head towards Munch. ''So are you excited about the wedding? Munch is.'' He said. He was glad that they had found each other. They were really happy together, too, he could tell.

Fin smiled, and the excitement was plain on his face. ''Of course, I love him more than I have ever loved anyone before. He's amazing. He and I take care of each other, the way you and Liv do. It's an equal footing. We have some disagreements, but we agree most of the time, and I just love being with someone that I know so well. He's just amazing.''

Elliot had never heard him talk this way about John before, mainly because he had never really asked. He was glad that they were sharing. It would help in being closer. He loved Fin a lot, and they were friends, but Livvy was a lot closer to him than Elliot was. He wanted to get to know him better than he did, so he could have a guy friend to do things with. He liked Munch, but they didn't really have enough in common to really hang out without everyone else there. Elliot was surprised that Fin had asked him to be best man and not his own son. Callie was a best man, too, but more really maid of honor, since she was a girl. ''That's nice that you're so happy. You guys are probably really tight after being friends for so long too.'' He knew why they were talking about this. It was taking their mind off of Alex being in surgery.

Rose turned to them. ''Hi, I know you guys don't know me, but I really need to talk to someone. I am just thinking too much about Alex, and I need something to distract me. How do you know Alex?'' She asked.

Elliot said, ''She used to work with us. Now she of course works in Homicide, as I'm sure you know. We're cops with the Special Victims Unit. She used to be our ADA. Before Casey came along.'' He asked, ''So how are things going with you and Alex? She told us that she's known you for awhile now, you've been going to the coffee house?''

Rose nodded. ''Yeah, I was really nervous about asking her out. She was so in the closet, I didn't want to freak her out by letting her know that I knew she was gay. It can be very overwhelming when no one knows about you. I liked her right away, too. She was really nice and I thought she was gorgeous. I could tell that even though she was in the closet, she could tell who she was. She is a classy lady.''

Elliot said, ''Yeah, we like her. This isn't the first time that we've had this scare. She's pulled through being shot before. She was in the witness protection program for a long time. So don't worry, she will make it through this.'' He paused. ''Are you getting serious about her?'' He knew that Alex liked Rose, and she was trying to make it work, since she knew that she couldn't be with Olivia. He thought it was healthy for her.

Rose smiled as a few tears slipped down her face. She was getting serious about Alex. ''Yeah, she's a great girl. I am getting serious about her. She is so amazing. Am I her first girlfriend? You don't have to tell me, and I won't say anything to her, but I want to know. I just want to know what to expect. She's been very close mouthed about a lot so far.''

Fin and Elliot shared a look, before Fin answered. ''Yes, you are. There was a woman before, that she really loved, but she's straight. Alex was just finally trying to move on and get over her. She wanted to have a real relationship with someone. She was tired of being in love with someone that couldn't love her back that way.''

Hanson and Penhall walked up, both looking upset. Penhall said, ''Hello, everyone. Tommy and I have some news.'' He tightened his belt on his jeans. He thought the way teens dressed today was so retarded.

Elliot looked up at them, trying not to wake Olivia. ''What's up? Did you find my daughter's killer?'' He asked, hoping that they had. He wanted whoever killed her to be brought to justice.

Tom and Doug shared a look before Tom looked back at Elliot. ''Yes, we did. His name is Ronnie Siberache. He was hired by Merritt Rook. We can't find much on Rook. The most we can find is that he's had some dealings with you in the past. We're trying to figure out how to proceed next. Ronnie doesn't have any information about where his hideout is, or any of that. He had dealings with Rook's partner, Dani Beck. She was the one who brought him all the information.''

Elliot said, ''So he didn't have any dealings at all with Rook?'' He wasn't surprised to find out that Merritt Rook was still after him and Olivia. It made sense. He was still out there. He held Olivia a little tighter, hoping that he didn't wake her. She wasn't going to be surprised about this either.

Tom shook his head. ''No. Dani said Merritt doesn't work with small potatoes. But he wanted Ronnie to do that job for him. Ronnie's busted, we've got him in custody. We're going to go where he met this Dani girl, see if she shows up so we can follow her. Do you know the Dani girl, too?'' He felt better now that they knew who was behind Liz's murder. He had someone to go after now. Doug felt better, too.

Fin and Elliot shared a look before Fin replied, ''Yes, we do know Dani Beck. She used to be in our Unit with us. She's tried to hurt us before, it isn't surprising that she is still working with Merritt.''

Doug continued the conversation while Tom was lost in thought. He had been thinking a lot about Judy lately. Doug didn't know, but before he and Judy had gotten together, Tom and Judy had been together. It had been after a lot of alcohol, and they had regretted it afterwards. Tom still had feelings for Judy. He had backed off once he had seen that Doug and Judy had started to get interested in each other. He and Judy rarely hung out anymore alone. Tom didn't trust himself around her. He would never want to hurt Doug, but he still loved Judy a lot. They had been friends first, too, and it had led to some deeper feeling. He was beating himself up for it, Judy and Doug were very much in love. They had a great relationship.

His best friend nudged him. ''Come on, we need to go.'' Doug had noticed that Tom had been thinking about something. He wondered what it was. Tom didn't talk a lot about things. He liked to be a very private person. He was Doug's best friend, and Doug cared about him. He knew that Tom knew he could come to him if he needed anything.

Tom nodded as they said bye to the others and headed back out of the hospital. They were going to go to Tom's and hang out for a little while before Doug went back home to Judy. She was working a case with Harry and would be home late anyway. When they got there, Booker was waiting for them. Tom was surprised, Booker had never been to his apartment before except once to yell at him for doing a background check on him. Tom said, ''What's up, Booker? What are you doing here?'' He asked.

Booker shrugged. ''Judy and Harry told me you were hanging out, I thought I could join you. I just need to hang out for a little while. I've been really stressed lately.''

Doug and Tom looked at each other. Tom wasn't sure if he wanted Booker here or not. He did think Booker was an alright guy, even though he hadn't thought that at first. He had been planning on it being just him and Doug. He wanted some time with Doug to hang out when they could just be themselves and not the "McQuaid brothers". ''Um, Booker, I was hoping that it would be just me and Doug tonight, I hope that doesn't bother you any.''

Booker was upset that Tom was saying no, but he guessed he understood. ''Ok, that's cool, some other time.'' He left.

Doug wondered why he had told Booker no. Booker was an alright guy. ''What gives with turning Booker away? We're only hanging out, watching movies. Booker could have joined us.'' He got out the pizza coupons, so they could decide what kind of pie they were going to get.

Tom shrugged. ''I just want it to be us, Doug. We've been working so much lately we haven't had a lot of time for us to hang out. And you're always with Judy when you aren't with me.'' He knew that that was going to ruffle Doug's feathers a little, Doug never wanted to leave Jude's side. He loved her more than Tom had ever seen him love anyone.

Doug thought that was fair. He had been spending a lot of time with Judy lately. He loved her. He knew Tom was probably jealous, he just wanted a girl of his own. He knew it was lonely on your own. No matter what Tom said, he knew that he didn't want to be on his own. ''I guess you're right. I'm sorry that we haven't had as much time to hang out. I just really love Judy. I've finally got something good going with her. It's really going to work out for us.''

Tom just smiled wearily and then got them both out a beer. He wasn't going to say anything about Judy, because he didn't want to talk about her. It was very painful to talk about Judy with Doug. He tried to avoid it when he could. He knew that Judy was starting to figure it out, too, and she had tried to talk to her about it on several occasions. She wanted to make things better with them, but until Tom got over her, he didn't forsee that happening. ''It's OK. We just have to work on making time for us.''

Meanwhile, Merritt Rook was berating Dani Beck at the hideout. He was angry that she had gotten the Ronnie boy caught. Now he was anticipating them trying to follow her back to the hideout or something. He was never going to win if she kept doing shit like that. He was very angry with her, and she was now confined to the hideout for a few days. He was glad they already had everything they needed for awhile. He hoped that the Ronnie boy would keep quiet. It wouldn't do if he started talking.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The next morning, Tom awoke on his best friend's couch. He had a monster headache. He barely remembered anything from the night before. He slowly sat up, swallowing. He had such a dry throat. He needed some water or something. He went to put his feet on the floor and almost stepped on Doug. He was surprised that Doug hadn't gone to bed, or Judy hadn't woken him up when she had gotten home. Tom nudged Doug with his foot. ''Doug, why are you sleeping on the floor? Why didn't you go to bed?''

Doug woke up, rubbing his head. His dirty blonde hair was all messed up. He yawned, groaning. ''I don't know, I don't remember anything from last night.'' He said, sitting up.

Tom saw the beer bottles sitting all around the couch, and wondered again why Judy hadn't picked them up when she had gotten home. ''Do you think Judy's OK? Why wouldn't she have woken you up when she got home or picked up all the beer bottles we left lying around? You know how Judy is, she likes a clean place.''

Doug shook his head, very slowly. ''Again, I don't know. Let's just go to the kitchen and get some coffee.'' He got up, and Tom followed him into the kitchen. Surprisingly, Judy was in there already. ''Morning, Jude.'' Doug said, as he gave her a kiss.

Judy sniffed him. ''Doug, you still smell like beer.'' She said, as she handed Tom a coffee cup, trying to avoid touching his hand. She knew how Tom still felt about her. She tried not to make things harder on him than it needed to be. She knew how hard it was to have to hang out with the woman you loved and her boyfriend. Especially her livein boyfriend. It was really serious at that point. She didn't mind that he had ended up staying the night, though.

Tom thanked her, and took the coffee pot that Doug handed him. ''So how's the case going that you're working with Harry?'' He asked. getting some creamer and sugar out.

Judy was fixing breakfast. ''It's going OK. Harry and I had to go to a party last night. When I got home, you guys were already passed out. Do you know that you went through two cases of beer? What the hell were you doing?'' She asked, cracking some eggs and whisking them up in a bowl. She told Doug to get some bacon and toast out.

Doug rubbed his head again as he took a sip of coffee. ''We hung out, ate some pizza, I think we found an old game on Espn or something, babe.'' He said, as he sat down at the kitchen table, to take a look at the paper.

Tom tried to ignore Judy's gaze as best he could. It was too hard. He almost hated hanging out with her. It was just too hard to be around her. ''So how's Harry?'' He asked, for something to talk about.

Judy put the eggs in the pan, and got out a spatula. ''He's doing OK. How's the case going, with Lizzie Stabler?'' She asked. Doug and she talked about it sometimes, it was bugging him a little. He really wanted to catch their guy. He was glad that they had caught Ronnie, but he wanted to get the Rook guy and the Beck girl.

Doug answered for them both. ''It's frustrating, baby, I really want to catch Rook and Beck. They are elluding us right now, and it's bothering me. You know how I am with cases like that. Do you need some help with breakfast, babe?'' He asked.

Judy did need some help with the toast. ''Sure, babe, if you could toast the bread I would really appreciate it. I want the butter to melt OK.'' She said, as she stirred the eggs again.

Doug got up and began feeding bread into the toaster. Tom sat down at the kitchen table, taking over the paper. He sipped his coffee, brooding. He really needed a girlfriend, maybe that would help him get over Judy. It wasn't cool to still be having this feelings over his best friend's girl. He felt like he was breaking the bro code or something.

Meanwhile, Olivia, Elliot, and Casey were having a serious conversation in the kitchen. The kids were all still in bed. They wanted to discuss what they were going to do about Rook and his pals. Especially Cassidy. He had already tried to kill Elliot once. Olivia was worried that they were going to try something again, send someone after the kids. They'd been the ones to send someone after Liz in the first place. Olivia was saying, ''We have to do something, Elliot. We can't just sit here and wait for them to do something. I can't just wait for Penhall and Hanson to catch them. That could take awhile. They're really good at elluding the cops.'' She could feel herself getting hysterical.

Elliot rubbed her arm, trying to get her to calm down a little. ''Liv, we will have to do the best we can do, I'll make sure that we have someone outside at all times. That's all we can do, we'll have to trust that Hanson and Penhall know what they're doing, babe. It won't do if we cause something to happen to one of us. I want to get these guys as much as you do, but we have our kids to think about.'' Losing Lizzie had changed him. He was always gungho about catching people who had hurt his family before, but now he was afraid. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself and something happen to anyone else in his family.

The doorbell rang, and Casey got up to get it. She was glad that she was included in the important discussion about the family. She opened the door to reveal Cragen. ''Hey, Don, come in.'' She knew that Olivia would want her father in on this discussion, too, he might have some ideas on how to keep the family safe.

Cragen was wiping his eyes, he looked upset about something. ''Hi, Casey, I've got some news that isn't so good.'' He said, as he stepped inside the house, following her to the kitchen. Once they had joined Elliot and Olivia, Cragen sat down at the table, and said, ''I need you to give you some news. The doctor says that if Alex doesn't wake up in a couple of days, he's going to suggest that the plug be pulled. Alex has designated that job to you guys, El and Liv. She has no parents living and she didn't have Rose yet when she had the plans drawn up. So that will be your decision.'' He wiped his eyes again.

Elliot and Olivia were both surprised. They hadn't known that Alex had done anything like that. They weren't sure that they were ready for something like that. Elliot said, ''OK, well, that's something Liv and I will have to discuss. Like we need anything else on our plate right now.'' He knew that Alex hadn't meant it when she had done it, but still.

Cragen said, ''So what were you guys discussing? Penhall and Hanson find Rook or Beck yet? Early this morning Cassidy turned himself back in. They didn't believe him that it wasn't his idea to break himself out, so he got more time. He was already serving 25 to life, though, so it's not like it hurt him any.''

Olivia was surprised that Cassidy had turned himself back in. She hadn't thought that he would ever do that. She had thought that he had asked them to get him out. She said, ''Well, that's good, but we still have to worry about Rook and Beck. What do you think we should do, Daddy?'' She asked.

Cragen said, ''It's summer, so you might be able to get away with taking the kids somewhere for awhile, or see if Maureen can take them somewhere, and you guys may be able to help us catch Rook and Beck. Now that Hanson and Penhall have caught the Ronnie boy, they may let us work with them on the case.''

Casey said, ''Do we really want to be intimidated that way? Do we really want to show them that they scare us that much? I'm betting as long as we have someone out here all day, guarding the place, I think it'll be OK. We don't want to send the message that we're scared of them. It's a bad message to send.'' Casey wasn't scared of Rook or Beck at all. She knew that they'd catch their man, they always did.

Elliot thought she might have a point. Maybe she was right, but he liked what Cragen said about helping Penhall and Hanson catch them. He knew that no matter how good Penhall and Hanson were, they would still need help. Rook and Beck were getting good at avoiding law enforcement. Elliot said, ''I think you both make good points. I think we should do what Casey said, and have protection out here, and we should make sure that Hanson and Penhall will work with us to catch Rook and Beck.'' He thought it was a good comprimise.

Olivia thought her husband had a sound idea. ''I agree. I think that that's a good comprimise. Sounds good to me.'' She got up. ''Anyone want some coffee or breakfast? Then I guess El and I will have to go down to the hospital, see how Alex is doing. El, baby, can you call Maureen and see if she can come and watch the kids? And why haven't we heard from Kathleen in a few days? That scares me, especially since I don't think that she's over her mother's death. She's now got to deal with Lizzie's death, too. What if Rook got to her already? We'll never know, because we haven't heard from her.'' She got a little shaky as she got out the coffee to put in the coffee maker.

Elliot got up from the table, and gave her a hug. ''Don't worry, baby, I bet Kathleen is fine. She's always very careful. I will ask Maureen if she's heard from her. I know it's hard, but try not to worry, OK?'' He kissed her and headed off into the living room with the house phone. He dialed Maureen's number. She picked up on the third ring. He said, ''Mo, it's your dad. I need to know if you can come over in a little bit and babysit the kids for us.''

Maureen had just gotten out of the shower, and she was finishing up getting dressed. With Alex in the hospital, she knew that her parents might be calling to have her sit for the kids. She was preparing. She didn't mind that they relied on her so much. She was in graduate school, and she had declined getting a summer job so she could be available for them until Dickie went back to school full time instead of just a few hours during the day. She knew that Grandpa Don was happy to help out, too. He loved being with the kids all day. She said, ''Sure Daddy, I can be there whenever you want me there. I made sure to get ready in case you would need me.''

Elliot was relieved, he was glad that they would be able to have Maureen with the kids that day. The kids would like it too, they loved Maureen. He then asked, ''Mo, have you heard from your sister? We haven't heard from Kathleen in a few days and with everything going on we're really worried about her.''

Maureen had not heard from her sister, and she was worried, too. ''Daddy, I wish I could tell you that I have, but I have not. I'm worried about her, too, you should try calling her. I have, I haven't gotten any calls back. I'm hoping that she's OK. I know that she needs to be seeing a therapist, she is still really messed up about Mom's death. And she hasn't been taking Lizzie's death any better. I'm really hoping that she isn't going to kill herself. She's been doing a lot of drugs and partying, from what I know. I think there's been quite a few guys, too.'' She hated to tell her father all of this, she knew that he was going to take it hard.

Elliot could feel tears pricking his eyes. He was sad for Kathleen, that she was having that many problems. ''I will, thanks for letting me know about Kathleen. I'll try to call her and see how she's doing.'' After a couple of minutes more of talking, they agreed that Maureen would come over as soon as she could, then he hung up to go and get the kids up while Olivia was fixing breakfast.

Kathleen Stabler was standing on the roof of her friend's apartment building, toying with jumping off. She was all messed up inside, and she needed something to change. She wanted things to be better. No one knew she was up here, planning on jumping, so if she did, this was it. She stepped up on the side of the building, feeling the rush of being up so high and knowing she could fall off, even if she didn't jump. She took a deep breath, and hoped that her family would forgive her and took a leap.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Elliot and Olivia arrived at the hospital a little while later, both looking nervous. They weren't sure what they were going to do about Alex. They wanted to talk to the doctor about her chances, see if it was worth keeping her on life support. They headed over to the ICU desk, to ask after Alex's doctor. She had Dr. Taylor, the same doctor who had worked on Olivia when she had been in her coma. Elliot asked the nurse at the desk, and they were told that they would page him. They went to wait, and found Rose, Munch, and Fin sitting in the waiting room. Elliot said, ''I'm sorry that you don't get to make this decision. I'm not sure what we are going to do yet, but if you want to have some input, you can." He told Rose.

Rose was wiping her cheeks with a tissue. She was sitting next to Fin, hardly believing that she had no say whether her girlfriend lived or died. She wasn't dealing with it well. ''I appreciate that. I am glad that you are willing to take my opinion into account.'' She said.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a flurry of activity going on. They heard a code being paged, and then orderlies were wheeling Kathleen past them on a stretcher. Olivia put her hands to her mouth, and they grabbed the nearest nurse, to ask her what was going on. Kathleen had been barely recognizable. ''Excuse me, that is our daughter, what happened to her?'' Olivia asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

The nurse said, ''They told us they found her on the street, they think she jumped off the top of an apartment building. I will come back and update you as soon as I can.'' She touched Olivia's arm and disappeared after the stretcher.

Elliot folded Olivia into his arms, and she sobbed on his shoulder. How much more would they have to take? After a minute, Dr. Taylor walked up to them. Elliot let go of Olivia so he could talk to Dr. Taylor. ''Dr. Taylor, what can you tell us about Alex's chances?'' He asked.

Dr. Taylor looked like he had bad news. He said, ''I hate to tell you this. Alex probably isn't going to wake up. We were able to fix most of her injuries from the gunshot, but her brain has had too much damage. She's not going to wake up. You should think about taking her off life support. She's never going to get better.'' He gave them a sympathetic look and said, ''I have to go check on your daughter, I'll be back.'' He walked away.

Elliot looked at Olivia. She was still crying. He asked, ''What do you want to do? I think if Alex isn't going to wake up we should put her out of her misery. What do you think?'' He knew it was a hard decision to make, but he didn't want Alex to suffer. It seemed more humane to just let her go.

Olivia sniffled. She hated all the loss they'd had to go through lately. She didn't want to go through any more of it. She said, "I hate to make this decision, Elliot, I can't. Please, you do it. I know she means a lot to both of us. Please, you do it."

Elliot looked at her, really wishing she hadn't just said that. He hated to make these kinds of decisions, too. He sighed. "I guess we ought to put her out of her misery, Alex wouldn't want to be left on life support like that." He said, as he pulled a sobbing Olivia into his arms.

About an hour later, they learned that they had lost Kathleen. Olivia was beside herself. She was seriously taking this very hard. She hated losing people, especially Kathleen after losing Lizzie like that. She was inconsolable for days.

_Three months later: _

Olivia had awakened, to a bright shiny new day. She was feeling a lot better. The past three months had been the hardest of her life, but the entire family was doing a lot better. Scarlett was sleeping through the night, Lizzie's murderer had not been caught, but they'd been hanging out a lot with Hanson and Penhall. They had grown close to them over the course of the investigation. They were having a cookout today, the last weekend of the summer, Dickie had already started school. Eli was playing nicely with the twins in the living room, and Elliot was on the back porch, working on the burgers, hot dogs, and brats. Casey and Olivia were in the kitchen with Hanson and Penhall, who had just arrived. They were waiting on Olivia's father, and that would be all the guests. Olivia was working on dressing up the salads and Casey was setting out the buns, chips, and condiments on the island.

Doug was helping, he had gotten out the paper plates, and the plastic cups that they were putting the soda and beer in. Maureen was in the living room with the kids, and so was Dickie. Doug asked, "So how come Munch and Fin didn't come?" The wedding had been postponed, after they had lost Alex and Kathleen, no one had been in a wedding sort of mood, Fin had been upset, but his friend was trying to work something out for him with the Plaza.

Olivia said, "Today is a special day for them, not sure exactly what it is, but they wanted to spend it alone, so they declined our offer to come over. I miss them, I haven't seen them in a couple of weeks." She adjusted her ponytail. She was wearing jean shorts and a red tank top, and flip flops on her feet.

Tom was listening to them talk. He had spent the last three months when he wasn't working with Olivia, talking. He had been confiding in her about his love for Judy. She had been trying to help him get over Judy. She was with Doug, and he had to find some way to move on. He had come to trust Olivia greatly. He and Doug had been spending a lot of time together, minus Judy, too. He wasn't sure how he felt being around Judy and Doug together, he had been trying to avoid it. He was glad that Olivia had come into his life, though, he really appreciated her friendship. Casey was pretty cool, too, he had also been talking to her about things.

The doorbell rang, startling them all. Don usually just came on in, after knocking once or twice, it was his daughter's house. Olivia went to get it, her flip flops making noise on the floor. She opened the door to reveal Callie and Fitz. Callie did not look good. The past three months had been hard on her. She was wearing old clothes, a pair of too big jeans and what looked to be one of Ace's old concert tees. Olivia had never heard of the band before. Fitz looked fine, he was clean, and his clothes were clean. Callie's long brown hair was cleanish, but unkempt, it hung almost to her waist, it had been long before, but she hadn't gotten it cut in three months. She had a bit of a stomach poking out, Olivia wondered if she was pregnant. Olivia said, "Guys, what are you doing here? You know we're having a barbeque, that you weren't invited to, I'm sorry."

Fitz nodded. He hadn't blamed El and Liv for not inviting them. They still were having issues being close to them, they were still getting to know them. Fitz and Callie had been dating off and on for the past three months, she kept breaking up with him. He knew it was out of guilt over what had happened with Ace, and he was being patient. He said, "I know, Liv, and we'll leave, I just want you to talk to Callie for me, or have Casey. We were out this way, that's why I stopped. I was making her get out of her apartment."

Callie wasn't focused on anything. She was staring at her feet, which were encased in flip flops. She tossed brown hair over her shoulder and felt Fitz ushering her into the house, as Olivia closed the door behind them. She felt herself being led to the kitchen. She noticed a chair, and sat down in it. Then she felt hands on her chin, and she turned the way they were pulling. It was Casey. She said, "Hi, Casey." She blinked a couple of times, trying to focus on her.

Casey had pulled her hair back that day, and so she met Callie's eyes head on, with nothing hanging in her way. "Callie, what the hell is wrong with you?" She asked, letting go of her friend's chin when she was sure that Callie's eyes were going to stay on her.

Callie looked at Casey. She knew what was wrong with her, she was with Fitz, and Ace was dead. Life was not how it was supposed to be. She had fallen in love with a married man and nearly ruined her life. She said, "I am just nowhere. I failed at everything but my job, and I nearly failed at that, being in love with Elliot like that. I can't do anything right. And now I'm pregnant with Fitz's baby." With Fitz reacting in shock with everyone else, she figured she must not have told him yet. Hmmm, that was news to her.

Fitz sat down next to her, and took one of her hands, and said, "Callie, Callie, look at me." She turned to look at him, reluctant to take her eyes off Casey. He said, "Callie, are you sure? Have you taken a test or been to the doctor?" He asked, squeezing her hand.

Callie nodded. "I took a test, but I haven't been to the doctor yet." She said, putting her other hand on her stomach. She was surprised that Fitz hadn't noticed, she had been fairly slender before she had started showing. She wasn't even really showing a lot right now, but she was enough that he should have noticed.

Olivia was watching the exchange, feeling sorry for her. She knew Callie still had to be taking Ace's death hard, and that's why she was looking so barely put together. She met Casey's eyes, Casey looked nervous, too. Casey turned back to Callie, trying to get her to talk. Tom turned to Olivia, and asked her if that was the girl that had been in love with Elliot. Olivia nodded and whispered, "Yeah, still having problems being friends with her because of it, although, with her dating Fitz off and on, it's not such a problem."

Tom was wearing less baggy jeans, and a tank top. He and Doug had been able to forgo the teen wear today. He wiped a strand of brown hair out of his face. He whispered, "I can understand, I bet if Doug knew how I felt, he wouldn't want me being around Judy."

Olivia shook her head. "Tom, you're not actively trying to do anything about it like this girl was. She was being a little crazy about her feelings for Elliot, it was a little ridiculous." She whispered back.

Callie got up, a little shaky, she hadn't eaten in two days. She said, "I am going back out to the car, Fitz, I want to go home, I know Olivia is uncomfortable with me being here, and that's fine, I would be too. Plus, I need to clean up the apartment a little bit, Ace will be home soon and he likes it clean." She missed the looks everyone shared as she headed back out the front door.

Fitz said, "Don't worry, I will talk to Huang as soon as I get back to her apartment." He thanked them and left.

Olivia said, "Seriously, was I that bad?" She knew she had been messed up after they had found out about Lizzie, but she hoped she was a little more put together than that. She went to the fridge, to get out the sodas and beer and put them in the cooler.

Casey wasn't sure if Olivia's behavior had been considered worse or not. "I don't know, but I am glad you are starting to be a little better. Losing kids is hard, no one expects you to be one hundred percent just yet. But that was bad, I really understand now why Fin and I haven't really heard from her in a few months, she is pretty bad off right now." Casey got up, to holler out the window into the backyard, to see if Elliot was done with at least some of the meat, she was getting hungry. "El, you done yet?" She asked, giving him her Novak eyes.

Elliot was wearing shorts, a Yankees tee, and a apron that said Kiss the Cook. He was putting some burgers and brats on the plate that sat on the side of the grill. He was wondering why Dickie hadn't wanted to be out here with him, he'd been very withdrawn the rest of the summer, but once regular school had started up, he'd been doing better. He said, "Yeah, Novak, why don't you come out and get the plate, empty it, and come back? Then you guys can start if you're so impatient." He gave her a face back, making her laugh.

Casey headed out into the back yard. She was wearing shorts and a tank top, too. It seemed to be the most comfortable thing to wear that day. She took the plate full of meat and stood there for a minute. She was debating telling him about what Callie had just shown up and done, but she wasn't sure she should ruin El's good mood. She instead chose to ask him about the guy he had supposedly been talking her up to. She wanted to know what was going on there. "So what's with this guy that you were supposed to be setting me up with, Stabler?" She asked.

Elliot closed the grill lid and picked up his beer. "He's supposed to stop by after work today. He is an architect, I met him at Dickie's school on Parent Teacher day. Olivia wasn't able to go, she was still pretty messed up about Kathleen. He and I have been getting to know one another, I wanted to make sure he was a good guy before I said anything to you. His name is Darren, and I think you are really going to like him. I'll be surprised if you don't." He had instantly thought of Casey when he had met this guy. Darren had a kid in school that was in some of Dickie's classes. A girl, Dianna. She seemed nice, Elliot had met her too.

Casey nodded, all sounded OK so far. "So what does he look like, El?" She asked. She was so glad that Elliot had someone for her to meet, she was really tired of only having men in her life that she thought of as brothers. She really loved Elliot, Fin, Munch, Tom, and Doug a lot, but they were all like brothers to her. She was even starting to like Fitz a lot. She thought he was dealing with the Callie thing very well. He was being very patient and loving with her.

Elliot said, "He is tall, about my heighth, dark brown eyes, and black hair. He's muscular, but not as built as me, and he is by most women's standards, pretty handsome. I checked, I asked Maureen, she went with me that day, too. She says he was cute. I guess you'll have to judge for yourself when he gets here." He loved Casey like a sister, he wanted her to be happy, and he knew that she was miserable being by herself. He wanted her to be happy. The end result wasn't even to get her out of the house, because he loved having her there, she really helped out a lot with the babies.

Speaking of babies, Eli came running to the back door. He was wearing his swim trunks, they had a baby pool in the back yard for the boys to swim in. They also had a slip-n-slide that Eli had played on all summer. Sometimes all day if no one stopped him and made him get dry and eat. He carefully pushed open the screen door and ran to Casey, who scooped him up as he attacked her. "Aunt Casey, I want a burger." He said, as he tried to see what his father was doing.

Casey hugged him tighter. He had a head full of blonde curly hair. He was one of the cutest kids Casey had ever seen, she loved this little guy with all of her heart. "I want one, too, Eli, I am bugging your daddy to make sure that he is getting the burgers done." She said, and pointed to the plate she'd put back down when Eli had attacked her. "See, Eli, there's burgers and brats on that plate. I was just getting ready to take them inside, do you want me to fix you one?" She asked, bouncing him on her hip.

Eli nodded. "Daddy, you're slow." He said, giggling and laughing as Elliot made a face at his son. "Daddy, stop it." He added, as Casey held him closer for Elliot to tickle.

Olivia watched from the kitchen window. Doug and Tom had started talking about sports, and her attention had waned. She was glad to see her family happier. She hoped nothing else bad was going to happen, she wasn't sure that they could handle it. They'd had enough loss, and Olivia didn't want them to have any more. They had barely been functioning since they had lost Alex and Kathleen. She smiled as Elliot chased Eli around the yard. She had never thought she would have a family, and now she was losing what she had fought so hard to keep.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

_One month later: _

Elliot awoke to a bright sunny, but cold day. He climbed out of bed, and wished instantly that he had stayed there. He was supposed to take the kids shopping for Halloween costumes today. He wasn't so sure he wanted to, Eli was a pain in the ass in the Halloween stores, he always tried to grab everything. Elliot had to make sure to keep him on his leash, and then he had to push the twins in the strollers, and carry Scarlett on his back. It had never been this hard before, but they had never had so many little ones at one time before. He sighed and headed to the closet, to get out a pair of jeans and a plain black sweatshirt. He then went to take a shower.

Once out, he dressed quickly, and checked on Liv, to see if she was awake yet. She was, she was just getting out of bed when he went to give her a kiss. He was heading down to make breakfast. Casey was most likely already up and making sure the kids were dressed. She was going to the stores with him, Darren and his daughter Dianna were meeting them there. She and Darren had been dating since the barbeque. He kissed Olivia on the cheek, and said, "Hey, baby. How are you this morning?"

Olivia yawned and got up. She had been feeling a little sick lately, and she had missed her period. She was going to kill Elliot if she was pregnant. She had opted to not go to the stores with them, but she was feeling a little better, she might chance it. She said, "I think I want to go shopping with everyone today, baby, I am feeling a lot better." She really was, if she was pregnant, like she thought she was, then the morning sickness would disappear later. She ran a hand through her hair, which reached her shoulders now. She also thought that was more evidence she was pregnant, her hair, which normally grew fast, anyway, was seeming to grow even faster.

Elliot said, "That's great, baby, why don't you get in the shower while I go and cook some breakfast? That way when you're finished, you can come on down and eat." He gave her another kiss and added, "I am going to head on downstairs, OK?" She nodded at him and he left the room.

Olivia gave a groan and headed into the bathroom. She took off her nightie, tossed it in the hamper, and jumped into the shower. She took a quick shower, she didn't feel so hot and she wanted to get out, see if she needed to throw up or something. She climbed out, and grabbed a towel from the shelves Elliot had put up on the wall. She toweled off her hair and then wrapped the towel around her, and knelt by the toilet. Sure enough, she had needed to throw up. Afterwards, she brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth out, and then got under the sink and pulled out a pregnancy test. She kept at least three or four of them at a time, since she had now been pregnant twice. And since she didn't take any birth control and there was no condoms, it just made sense to keep some tests handy. She opened it up, got out a paper cup, and sat down to pee in it, and once it was full enough, she stuck the test in the cup, and went to get dressed while she waited.

She went to the closet and got out a pair of jeans, and a soft pink sweater. It was just cold enough that you needed something warm, but not necessarily a coat. She placed them on the bed and got out underwear and a bra. Once she was dressed, she pulled out a pair of socks, slipped them on, and headed back into the bathroom, the towel wrapped around her hair. She checked the test. Damn, two lines, she was pregnant. She sighed, and got rid of the cup and test, and washed her hands.

About ten minutes later, she headed down, ready for the day, makeup finished, and her hair up in a ponytail. It was always best when dealing with the kids all day to have your hair taken care of, especially since Nicky and Alex both liked to pull on hair. There was a flurry of activity in the kitchen. Dickie was handing plates of eggs, toast, and bacon to Eli, Nicky, and Alex, and Casey handed Scarlett to Olivia, with a bottle and a cloth. Olivia cradled Scarlett in the crook of her arm and offered her daughter the bottle. She said, "Smells good, babe. Any waffles?" She asked.

Elliot smiled at her and kissed her cheek. "I am glad you're feeling well enough this morning to eat, baby. And yeah, I made some waffles, too." He handed Casey a plate full of eggs, bacon, toast, and a couple of waffles. She sat down at the table. He picked up his own plate and sat down, too.

Olivia continued to feed Scarlett, as Dickie got his own plate and sat down. Olivia turned to Casey, as she wiped off a couple of dribbles by Scarlett's mouth. "You ready to see Darren and Dianna today? Is this the first time that you're meeting the daughter?" She asked, as Scarlett finished up her bottle. She must have been hungry. Olivia took the bottle, put it in the sink, and put Scarlett in her bouncy chair, which was sitting on one end of the huge table. Then she got her plate of breakfast and a glass of milk and a cup of coffee.

Casey nodded. "I'm a little nervous about it, but Darren said that she's a pretty easy going kid, and she's not at all angry that he's dating someone. Her mom passed away when she was like, three years old, and she is seventeen now, and she's fine with Darren dating someone. She figures it's about time. He's only been in one relationship since his wife died." She took a bite of her eggs and a sip of her orange juice.

Olivia sat down next to Elliot, and turned to Dickie. "Dick, are you going with us shopping today? It's OK if you don't want to." She said, she wasn't going to make him do anything if he didn't want to. He was doing a lot better now that he was in school, they thought maybe he was finally feeling a little better since his siblings' deaths. She took a bite of her waffles. They were fabulous, Elliot always did a great job making waffles on the waffle iron. She hoped she wouldn't regret eating all of this, and end up throwing it up later.

Dick shrugged. He was already dressed. It was a Saturday, he had been planning on staying home, and playing some video games. He had wanted one of his friends and Amanda to come over. He was looking forward to just chilling out. He hadn't had anyone over in awhile. He said, "I wanted to have Amanda and James over, play some video games, Mom. If that was OK." He was devouring his breakfast, he was pretty hungry.

Olivia thought that sounded like an excellent idea, Dickie hadn't had anyone over in a long while. She nodded. "That sounds fine, Dick. Just stay down here in the family room, and since we still haven't caught Lizzie's murderer, there is going to be some unies outside. Don't go anywhere by yourselves, stay here with the unies, please. Promise me, Dick." She was fine with them staying here, they hadn't had anything more happen since Alex and Kathleen had passed, but they still had unies staying outside the house, to make sure that everything was hunky dory until whoever it was was caught.

Dick didn't think that that was an unreasonable request. He nodded. "Sure thing, Mom, we'll stay here." He finished up his breakfast and rinsed his plate, putting it in the dishwasher. "I'm going to go call James and Amanda." He said, kissing his mother on the cheek and leaving the kitchen.

Everyone else finished up breakfast, and Olivia and Casey got the kids ready to go, and Elliot went out to start up the car. After telling Dickie bye, they headed outside. Olivia carried the diaper bag, it was humongus, Nicky and Alex wore pullups, they were still working on potty training them. So it had to have enough room for those as well as anything they needed for Scarlett. Elliot was just finishing putting the strollers in the back of the van they'd had to get, in order to not have to take two cars everywhere they went. Once everything was in the car, they headed off to Manhattan.

They met Darren and Dianna at the Halloween store. From here, they were heading to the mall, Olivia wanted to get the toddlers and Scarlett some new clothes, they were all growing so fast. Plus, Elliot needed some new jeans and some winter clothes. After that, it was going to be lunch time and then they had to head to Home Depot, they had to get some paint, they had told Dickie that he could paint his room if he wanted, since Elliot was going to paint the living room a different color. Olivia wanted some change.

They all headed inside the store, things going slowly. Casey was holding the leash that Eli was on, he was being good so far. Maybe being three was helping things. They headed over to the little kids costumes first. Things seemed to be going well with Casey and Darren, they seemed to be hitting it off great. Casey shook the leash a little. She said, "Eli, get away from those, if you want one, tell your daddy and he will pull it off the hook for you." She admonished.

Olivia was pushing the double seated stroller, which Nicky and Alex were sitting in, and Elliot wore Scarlett in a baby carrier on his back. She wondered what Eli was going to pick this year. He was pointing at some Red Ranger costume, and Elliot was bending to look at it, see how much it was. She said, "Elliot, don't we have that Halloween party at my brother's?"

Elliot asked, "Are you sure this is what you want, Eli?" It wasn't priced too bad, if he wanted it, it was fine. He turned to his wife. "Yeah, Fin's having a party." He told her, as he turned back to Eli, who was looking intently at the costume, his face scrunched up in thought. He finally nodded. Elliot said, "OK, Eli, I am going to hold on to it, if you change your mind before you leave the store, that's fine, but you better be sure once we are ready to leave, OK?" Eli nodded again.

Olivia pushed the stroller up next to the costumes, to let Nicky and Alex take a look. Picking out what the adults would wear usually took longer than the kids, they usually didn't take long to pick something. Nicky and Alex both wanted to be Spiderman. Olivia said, "Why don't neither of you be Spiderman, to be fair, and both of you pick something else out?" She didn't want either of them fighting over being Spiderman.

Dianna had wandered off to look at the young adult costumes, with her father's permission of course. She wasn't sure how she felt about Casey yet, but she thought she was a nice woman so far. She was wearing skinny jeans, and a NYU sweatshirt. It was the school she wanted to go to. She had long golden brown hair and green eyes. She was a very pretty girl. She had been upset to learn that Dickie hadn't come, she was really starting to get a crush on him. She had seen him a lot at school. She didn't take long to pick something, she was going to be Robin. She picked up the costume and headed back to her father.

Darren was talking with the adults when she returned. "So, how is it having four young ones all at once?" He was asking Olivia and Elliot as she rejoined them.

Olivia smiled. She replied, "Exhausting, but I love my kids." She watched as Nicky pointed at a Batman costume, and Alex was practically throwing his arm out trying to get his father's attention. He had picked out an Iron Man costume. She turned to Dianna. "Are you sad that you didn't have any brothers and sisters growing up?" She asked.

Dianna shrugged. "No, not really. When I was younger I did, but it's not so bad now. It's been me and my dad for so long, I got used to it." She then turned to Casey, hastening to add, "But don't worry, I am glad that my dad met you."

Elliot finally paid attention to Alex's waving arm, and picked up the Iron Man costume that he had been pointing at. "Well, now all we need is something for Scarlett to wear, and then we can go look at the adult costumes." He said, as Casey took a couple of the costumes to hold for him. He looked to Olivia. "What do you want Scarlett to wear, babe?"

Olivia said, "I want her to be a ladybug. See if they have one in her size, and then we're good to check out our sizes." She hadn't told him yet about the pregnancy. She wanted to wait until later, at dinner. She knew he wasn't going to be upset. He would be happy.

After they had procured Scarlett's ladybug costume, they moved over to the adult costumes. Casey was purusing the costumes with Darren. Eli was standing with Olivia and Elliot, he had taken the leash from Casey so Darren and Casey could have some time together. Dianna stayed with Olivia and Elliot, she was conversing with Eli. She was having a good time talking to him. Elliot asked, "So what are you thinking you want to wear, babe?" He wasn't sure what he wanted to wear, but if Olivia wanted theirs to match, that was fine with him.

Olivia said, "Let's be Romeo and Juliet, I want to wear something pretty." She pointed to a couple of matching costumes hanging together. He thought they looked complicated, but if she wanted to wear something like that, it was fine with him.

Casey said, "Olivia, I found Wonder Woman!" She sounded pretty excited about it. She and Darren rejoined them, Darren carrying a Superman costume. She was still holding the twins' costumes under her arm.

Once everyone was satisfied with their costumes, they headed to the mall. Here, they split up. Olivia and Elliot and their kids headed off to Old Navy, and Darren and Casey and Dianna headed off to Hot Topic. After Old Navy, Olivia was going to head to The Children's Place, to finish up the kids' clothes shopping. She pushed the stroller, and Elliot was holding Eli's leash. She started checking out the kids jeans. Elliot was next, they were going to head over to the men's section and pick out some stuff for Elliot.

Olivia picked out some pairs of jeans, and dropped them in the cart Elliot was pushing. She then headed over to the shirts, where she picked out a few of those, and then went to the baby section and went a little nuts picking out stuff for Scarlett.

About an hour later, they all met at the food court. Everyone picked out their different food choices and they all convened at a couple of tables. Olivia had chosen Chinese, and so had Elliot. They'd gotten the twins and Eli pizza, and Olivia had a bottle for Scarlett. Darren and Casey had both chosen chicken and fries, and Dianna had also chosen pizza. There was plenty of napkins, since the kids were messy. Olivia figured now was the best time to tell Elliot that she was pregnant. She turned to Elliot. "Baby, I have something to tell you." She said, as she took a bite of her rice.

Elliot looked at her. "What, baby?" He asked, wondering what she had to tell him. He took a sip of his soda as he picked up his fork, to start eating.

Olivia said, "Well, really, it's news everyone can know." She took a deep breath. "We are having another child." She looked into Elliot's blue eyes, and saw them light up. She knew he would be happy about it.

Elliot did not disappoint. He beamed and threw his arms around her, covering her face with kisses. "That is wonderful, babe."

Meanwhile, at the Jump Street Chapel, Doug and Tom were finishing up some paperwork. They weren't on a case at the moment, but Judy and Harry were, they were at a school in Queens. Booker was at a school in Manhattan. Tom had called for pizza, so they didn't have to leave the Chapel to eat. He finished up the folder he'd been working on and pulled another in front of him.

Doug hated this part of police work, he liked to be in the field, actually catching bad guys. He asked, "How long did the pizza people say they would be?" He leaned back in his chair, dropping his pen. He hoped that Captain Fuller was safely ensconced in his office, so that he wouldn't see Doug goofing off a little.

Tom shook his hair, getting some of it out of his eyes. He replied, "They said about half an hour, and that was fifteen minutes ago, so it shouldn't be long." He turned back to his work. He knew Doug was getting restless, and this was one of his ways of showing it. Tom didn't mind doing paperwork, he just loved being a cop, he liked all the aspects of it, even the paperwork. His friends often made fun of him for it, but he didn't mind. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to check the text. It was from Olivia. She was pregnant. He smiled. He said, "Hey, Doug, Livvy's pregnant."

Doug smiled. "Hey, that's awesome." He wondered when Judy was going to be ready to have kids. He was, he couldn't wait to be a father. He wanted someone to teach the facts of life to, and to play baseball. He folded his arms, concentrating on balancing his chair so he didn't fall. "So when are you going to start dating someone? It's been awhile since you and Jackie broke up." He said, looking earnestly at his best friend.

Tom wasn't sure what to say to that. Olivia had been trying to get him to agree to meet Maureen. She was single, and Olivia thought that Tom would really hit it off with her. She was a couple of years older than he was, but he figured that didn't matter. He really didn't think that meeting Maureen was a bad idea. She seemed like a nice girl, they had only met once at the house. She seemed to be pretty busy, she was a book editor. He said, "Not sure, Liv wants to set me up with her daughter, Maureen. You remember Maureen, right?" He asked.

Doug remembered meeting her once or twice. "Yeah, she seems to be nice. She's pretty. Lots of blonde hair, that one." He said, and straightened up in his chair, he had almost fallen. He added, "So why haven't you told Liv you will? What kind of sense does that make? It's not like Maureen's a horrible person, Liv's her mom. And Elliot's her dad. You're already in with the parents. I say go ahead and meet her."

Tom thought maybe he was right. It couldn't hurt to meet her. "I guess you're right. Maybe I'll text Olivia about it later." He said, "Now get back to work on your paperwork, you should at least try to make a dent in it before the pizza gets here." Doug made a face at him but hunched back over his paperwork.

Dani Beck was standing outside Merritt Rook's apartment, that he had rented with an assumed name. He was on Long Island, and Dani thought that was a little too close. She had to disguise herself when she went outside, she actually stayed here with him most of the time, he told her that he didn't trust her. He wanted her to stay as close to him as possible. She used her key to unlock the door. She had just gotten back from the grocery store. She had also met with an informant, who had told her of the Stablers' whereabouts for the day. She closed the door behind her and called out to Merritt, who was most likely in the kitchen.

He heard her and came out to join her. He had just finished cleaning the apartment, and he figured he could help Dani put the groceries away. He had had Cassidy eliminated for turning himself back in, he was expecting it to be on the news any day now. He said, "I took care of our Cassidy problem." He took a couple of the bags from her.

Dani groaned as she put the extra bags on the counter. She started taking things out of them as she willed herself to not cry. She had actually wanted Cassidy back, she had given up on getting Elliot for herself, she knew it was never going to happen. She said, "Did you really have to do that, Merritt? I loved him."

Merritt looked at her. "He was beyond you, you are better than he was. Don't worry. There is someone out there for you. Now, on to better matters. I think I have found someone to concentrate on killing Maureen Stabler for us." He emptied out the bag of groceries and put the bag under the sink.

Dani looked at him in shock. She had thought he was kidding about that. "Are you serious? Haven't we done enough? I thought you were done trying to get revenge on Elliot and Olivia." She said, keeping out some chicken. It was for dinner.

Merritt shook his head. "I will not stop until every last child of theirs is dead. They should be made to suffer as I've had." He was planning at stopping at nothing. They would know pain like nothing before.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

The Halloween party took place on Halloween, and they had asked Dickie to keep an eye on the little ones so they could go to the party. Olivia wasn't missing her big brother's Halloween party. Dickie hadn't minded, he actually hadn't had any plans, and his parents made sure that they told him not to let any of the kids have any of the candy they got for trick or treating, only one piece after dinner was all they were allowed to have. Olivia was just putting the finishing touches on her costume when Casey burst into their bedroom. The door was open, so Olivia didn't tease her about knocking. Elliot was in the bathroom with the door closed. Casey said, "Olivia, Brian Cassidy is dead. They just found his body outside the prison."

Olivia shook her head. They had heard that he was missing, he had been stolen right from the prison, and no one had been sure how it had happened. He hadn't had any visitors, and he was friends with no one in the prison. She said, "I can't believe that he's dead. If someone took him from the prison, then why was his body found near the prison? That makes no sense." Her hair was free, and she was wearing a pink and maroon high waisted dress, and she wore black shoes on her feet. She had a black cape she was going to wear to help keep her warm.

Casey shook her head. "I don't know, but the news said that he was mutilated so badly they only knew who he was by his teeth. His hands were cut off and they can't find them." She was already in her Wonder Woman costume.

Olivia knocked on the bathroom door, "Elliot, babe, are you decent?" She asked. She wanted to tell him about Brian. She hated to think it, but she was sure that Elliot wasn't going to be too upset that Brian was dead. Olivia had forgiven him in her heart for what he had done to them, she thought it was better for her soul if she didn't harbor a grudge against him.

Elliot opened the door. He was partially dressed. His tights were on, and his shoes, but his tunic was only half on. He was working on pulling it over his head and getting out the sash that was supposed to go around his waist. He didn't care if Casey had seen him with his shirt off, she'd seen him in swimming trunks before. He adjusted the tunic on his shoulders and picked up the sash. He said, "What's up, babe? You look beautiful." He gave her a kiss on the cheek before concentrating on getting the sash around his waist.

Olivia thought he looked completely hot. She liked the tights on him, it was different. She had been surprised that he had even agreed to wear them. She said, "Babe, Casey just saw on the news that Brian Cassidy is dead. He was found outside of Rykers." She was still in shock. They had worked with Brian, it was chilling to her a little.

Elliot was not at all surprised that Brian had been found dead. He had known as soon as they had heard that he was missing that they were going to find him dead. He thought Rook had something to do with it. They wanted to find him really badly. He said, "I'm not surprised, babe. I bet Rook had something to do with it. He probably was pretty pissed that Cassidy turned himself back in when they broke him out." He put the hat on that had come with his costume, and he was ready.

Before Olivia or Casey could say anything more, Maureen came in the room. She was going with them to Munch and Fin's party. She was dressed as Kahlan Amnell Rahl, the Mother Confessor from Terry Goodkind's _Sword of Truth_ novels. She had a long white dress on and she was wearing a long curly black wig. She had almost dyed her hair, but she hadn't wanted to dye it black, it was too hard to get back out of your hair. She was wearing boots with her dress. She had black cape, too, to help keep her warm outside. She said, "Mom, Dad, you guys ready?" She was going with them to the party. Tom was her date. He was coming as Richard Rahl, the Seeker of Truth and Kahlan's husband. It had been Maureen's idea.

Olivia turned to Maureen. "You look great, Maureen." She said, smiling at her. "Yeah, we're almost ready. Is Tom meeting us here or at Uncle Fin's?" She asked, as she watched Elliot grab up his gun, just in case. He also grabbed his badge. He wanted to take them with them just in case.

Maureen replied, "He's meeting us at Uncle Fin's. He said that he needed some time to finish getting ready. Doug and Judy are coming, too." She added, as she turned to Casey. "You look great, Aunt Casey." She said, giving Casey a brief hug.

Casey said, "Thanks, Maureen." She turned back to Olivia. "You guys ready to go?" She knew that they wouldn't want to discuss Cassidy in front of Maureen, no matter how old she was now. They wouldn't want to worry her. Someone was out to hurt their little family and they wanted to forget about it for now and have a good time. Casey was especially worried, she had worked hard to finally have a family of her own, especially since her mother had died, and she didn't want anything to take it away from her.

Olivia nodded. "I am, you ready, babe?" She asked, turning to Elliot. She was really worried. Nothing had happened to anyone else in their family, but with Cassidy being found dead it was a stern reminder that Merritt Rook and Dani Beck were still out there, and they were still going to be causing them trouble and pain until they were found. It made her really uneasy.

Meanwhile, Fin was checking out the area around the house he and Munch had bought in Brooklyn. He wanted to make sure that they were safe from anyone who might be trying to hurt Elliot and Olivia. Because they were going to be there at the party, there were a couple of unies posted on the porch, and in the backyard. Fin didn't want to take any chances. This was his family, too. He didn't find anyone, but he double checked to make sure. He then went back up on the front porch, to talk to the unies there. "Did you guys take a check of the perimeter at all today?" He asked.

The unies both nodded at him. The one on the left was younger, and his name was Steven. Fin didn't know what his last name was. He had only been dispatched to watch the house that day. They had mostly been over at Elliot and Olivia's. They had been two of the ten unies that had been over at the Stablers'. They were changed in shifts over the day. Elliot usually had a couple follow him back and forth from work. Steven told Fin now, "We've been checking every couple of hours, and John and David check the backyard." John and David were the other two unies. They were also two of the ten.

Fin said, "Good. Let me know if you have any trouble. Elliot and OIlvia and one of their kids will be here tonight, we've gotta be on our guard." He added, "I've got to go inside, make sure my fiance doesn't need any help with anything. We do have a party gettin ready to start." He headed inside, calling out for Munch. "Babe, you need any help with the party decorations?" He asked.

Munch was in his costume already. He was dressed as JFK, and Fin had argued over being Jackie O. He hadn't wanted to dress up like a girl. He had gone as Dracula. Munch was placing all the bottles of booze on the table in the living room. The furniture had been moved for dancing, and there was food set out on one of the other tables. Grapes, chips, mixed nuts, things like that. Pizza was going to be ordered later. He got out the first bag of plastic cups and put it out, too. He said, "No, babe, I got it. Unless you want to get out the soda and put some in the cooler."

Fin said he would. He went over and kissed Munch's cheek, and then headed into the kitchen, to get out some of the sodas. Once he was finished filling up the cooler, they got the first guests of the night, the doorbell was ringing. He hollered at Munch that he would get it. He hurried to the door. When he opened it, it revealed Cragen, Doug, Judy, and Tom. "Hi, guys, come on in." He said, stepping back to let them in. Doug and Judy had come as a dead prom King and Queen. They were both covered in fake blood and gore. Cragen was dressed as Superman. Fin smiled at them all. "Glad to see you all." He said, closing the door.

Cragen flipped his cape back over his shoulder. He was glad that they were getting together and doing something fun, it was going to get everyone's mind off of all that was going on. He said, "Glad to see you, Fin, glad you're having a party. It gets my mind off the fact that Merritt Rook is still out there."

Tom was wearing black athletic pants, a black chambray shirt, and a gold cape. It was Richard Rahl's war wizard outfit from the books. He made a face. "Don't remind me, that we haven't been able to catch him yet." He tossed a lock of brown hair out of his eyes. This was his first date with Maureen, they'd been talking on the phone for the past couple of weeks, and things had been going well. He was looking forward to seeing her tonight, she had told him she wanted to go as Richard and Kahlan Rahl and he had been fine with it, he hadn't read the books as she had, but he hadn't thought of a good enough idea on his own as it was.

Fin said, "There's liquor on that table over there if you want to get started, soda in the cooler over there, and food on that table. I'm going to call for pizza in a little bit. It might take awhile, what with it being Halloween and all." He went to get the door as the bell rang again.

A couple of hours later, the party was in full swing. Mostly everyone was drunk. Olivia, being as how she couldn't drink, was laughing at those who were. Maureen and Tom had disappeared, most likely to make out somewhere, they had been getting along famously. The empty pizza bottles and empty liquor bottles were piled high in the kitchen, and everyone was having a good time. That's when the fight occured. It was between Munch and Fin, who were both completely wasted.

Fin was yelling, "So, you're just going to leave me for women again? I saw you checking that girl out!" His words were slurring and he was committing a party foul, as alcohol was falling out of his cup as his arm waved around.

Munch shook his head. "I was not checking her out, baby, I was just checking out her outfit." He figured it was the alcohol making him act this way. He wasn't usually this jealous. It was not making Munch feel very safe, but he figured that they could work this out, they always worked out their fights. They loved each other so much.

Fin tossed the rest of his drink into his mouth and threw the plastic cup on the floor. He was so drunk. He could feel the room start to spin, as he worked for a reply to say to John. His mind grasped to find coherent words. He finally found his mouth replying, "You can't be serious, I saw the look in your eyes, John, you were looking at her like you've looked at me for the past two years. Before we even officially got together. I love you. I have loved you for a very long time. I don't want to be this jealous person. If you're having second thoughts about the wedding, you need to tell me, so we can talk about it. I know that it's been pushed back, and that was not what we had planned, but I still want to marry you. Don't you still want to marry me?" He asked, his heart pounding. He was not sure that he wanted to hear the answer.

Munch could hardly believe that Fin was saying this. He loved Fin so much. He was having second thoughts about the wedding, however. He knew he wanted to be with Fin, but he felt things were moving so fast. They had only been together about a year. He had been so happy when Fin had asked him, but now he was starting to feel as if he couldn't breathe. He found himself saying, "I am having second thoughts about the wedding, but not about you, Odafin. I still love you very much. It's just getting married that I am freaking out about. I have had a lot of ex-wives, you know. I couldn't take it if you ended up being an ex-husband. I just, I need some time and space."

Everyone at the party had stopped what they were doing and were watching Munch and Fin. Olivia could feel her face getting hot and her heart pounding. She hoped they weren't about to break up. She wasn't sure she could handle it if they did. She loved them both so much. She felt Elliot's hand slip into hers, and he squeezed it tightly. She hadn't even been aware that he had been next to her. She put her arm around his waist, and she hugged him to her. She was never more aware of him than she was in this moment. If Munch and Fin could break up, they were all doomed. Munch and Fin had a love unlike none she had ever seen before.

Fin could feel tears start to form in his eyes. He could hardly believe that this was happening. He felt his heart constrict. He found he could hardly breathe. He managed to say, "What are you saying, John? Are you saying you want us to break up? I am not sure that I could handle that. I love you so much. Please, don't be saying that. We can call off the wedding for now if you want to do that. I had to cancel everything when we pushed it back anyway. I don't think I can handle being without you." He had his hand clutched at his heart. He was feeling like he had to sit down. He didn't think he was having a heart attack, but he felt as if a panic attack was forthcoming.

Munch felt like his world was ending as he replied, "No, Fin, I can't be with you right now, I need to think about some things. We need some space. I am going to take my stuff, and go see about getting an apartment for a month at a time, or see if I can stay with Cragen or something. But I can't be in this relationship right now. I need some space." He shook his head as he left the room, apologizing.

Fin cried out as he fell to the floor in agony, and Olivia left Elliot's side to go to her brother. She held him as Fin sobbed on her shoulder. Elliot escorted everyone out, people getting out phones as some called for cabs and DDs getting some people into cars. Maureen and Tom appeared in the living room, and Casey came in from the kitchen. All looked surprised. Cragen had gone home about a half an hour ago, claiming he really needed some sleep. Olivia hugged Fin as tightly as she could, wishing that she could end his pain for him, but she knew that time was going to be the only thing that would make anything better.

The End, TBC in A Family Affair, the fifth in the series


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